Publications by authors named "Gertz A"

Context: Federal public health travel restrictions (FPHTR) in the United States are implemented for persons who meet specific criteria to prevent spread of communicable diseases of public health concern. FPHTR can mitigate the risk of disease transmission during air travel and mitigating disease translocation between geographic areas.

Objective: To characterize and determine the extent of FPHTR implementation during the COVID-19 pandemic.

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To determine the association between parental characteristics and MMR (measles-mumps- rubella) vaccination status of children in the United States. We conducted a cross-sectional study from July 2023 to April 2024 using a digital health survey via OutbreaksNearMe, weighted to target national population characteristics. We analyzed the responses of 19 892 parents of children younger than 5 years to examine the association between self-reported parental characteristics (i.

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In the early years of the COVID-19 pandemic, unprecedented public health measures were designed and implemented to mitigate the spread of SARS-CoV-2. On January 26, 2021, US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) staff began daily audits of documents of arriving passengers at 18 US international ports of entry to ensure documentation of either a negative predeparture antigen or nucleic acid amplification test result for SARS-CoV-2 or recent recovery from COVID-19. This case study briefly describes the results of those audits.

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Article Synopsis
  • In 2021, the US government helped evacuate people from Afghanistan through Operation Allies Welcome at two ports in Virginia and Pennsylvania.
  • Evacuees didn't need to show a negative COVID-19 test before traveling due to the quick evacuation process, but testing was done when they arrived.
  • Out of 65,068 evacuees, only 214 tested positive for COVID-19, and other diseases were found, showing the importance of testing to keep everyone safe.
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Background: On 20 September 2022, the Ugandan Ministry of Health declared an outbreak of Ebola disease caused by Sudan ebolavirus.

Methods: From 6 October 2022 to 10 January 2023, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) staff conducted public health assessments at five US ports of entry for travellers identified as having been in Uganda in the past 21 days. CDC also recommended that state, local and territorial health departments ('health departments') conduct post-arrival monitoring of these travellers.

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Background: Racism contributes to health disparities and is a serious threat to public health. Teaching physicians about racism, how to address it in medical practice, and developing high quality and sustainable curricula are essential to combating racism.

Objective: This study aimed to (1) describe the experience of racism and anti-racism teaching in residency programs, and elicit recommendations from key informants, and (2) use these data and formative research to develop recommendations for other residencies creating, implementing, and evaluating anti-racism curricula in their own programs.

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Introduction: From January 2021 to June 2022, the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention required predeparture SARS-CoV-2 testing for all air passengers arriving into the United States from a foreign country.

Methods: Using data collected during a surveillance project, we described predeparture testing behavior among a convenience sample of international air passengers entering the United States from July to September 2021 at six US ports of entry. We analyzed pairwise relationships between self-reported test type, test timing, demographic and travel characteristics, and COVID-19 vaccination status using chi-square and Fisher's exact tests.

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Background: Seasonal respiratory viruses had lower incidence during their 2019-2020 and 2020-2021 seasons, which overlapped with the COVID-19 pandemic. The widespread implementation of precautionary measures to prevent transmission of SARS-CoV-2 has been seen to also mitigate transmission of seasonal influenza. The COVID-19 pandemic also led to changes in care seeking and access.

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To describe trends in the number of air travelers categorized as infectious with SARS-CoV-2 (severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2; the virus that causes COVID-19) in the context of total US COVID-19 vaccinations administered, and overall case counts of SARS-CoV-2 in the United States. We searched the Quarantine Activity Reporting System (QARS) database for travelers with inbound international or domestic air travel, a positive SARS-CoV-2 lab result, and a surveillance categorization of SARS-CoV-2 infection reported during January 2020 to December 2021. Travelers were categorized as infectious during travel if they had arrival dates from 2 days before to 10 days after symptom onset or a positive viral test.

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COVID-19 vaccination rates among children have stalled, while new coronavirus strains continue to emerge. To improve child vaccination rates, policymakers must better understand parental preferences and reasons for COVID-19 vaccination among their children. Cross-sectional surveys were administered online to 30,174 US parents with at least one child of COVID-19 vaccine eligible age (5-17 years) between January 1 and May 9, 2022.

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What Is Already Known About This Topic?: Numerous ecological and laboratory studies suggest face masks are an effective non-pharmaceutical intervention for reducing the spread of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), but cannot otherwise assess individual-level effects.

What Is Added By This Report?: Using a prospective cohort of individuals enrolled in a participatory, syndromic surveillance tool prior to the first case of COVID-19 in the United States, we present a novel longitudinal assessment of the effectiveness of face masks.

What Are The Public Health Implications For Public Health Practice?: Our analysis demonstrates an association between self-reported mask-wearing behavior and lower individual risk of syndromic COVID-19-like illness while adjusting for confounders at the individual level.

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This study assesses the association between underlying health conditions and delaying medical care during the COVID-19 pandemic. An online cross-sectional survey administered by OutbreaksNearMe.org on Momentive.

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Introduction: To develop an attribute-based method for assessing patient contraceptive preferences in Botswana and pilot its use to explore the relationship between patient contraceptive preferences and the contraceptive methods provided or recommended to patients by clinicians.

Methods: A list of contraceptive attributes was developed with input from patients, clinicians, and other stakeholders. We assessed patient preferences for attributes of contraceptives using a discrete choice "best-worst scaling" approach and a multi-attribute decision-making method that linked patient attribute preferences to actual contraceptive method characteristics.

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On August 29, 2021, the United States government oversaw the emergent establishment of Operation Allies Welcome (OAW), led by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and implemented by the U.

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COVID-19 testing provides information regarding exposure and transmission risks, guides preventative measures (e.g., if and when to start and end isolation and quarantine), identifies opportunities for appropriate treatments, and helps assess disease prevalence (1).

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CDC estimates 1 million dogs are imported into the United States annually. With the movement of large numbers of animals into the United States the risk of disease importation, especially emerging diseases, and animal welfare issues are of concern. Dogs that arrive to the United States ill or dead are investigated by public health authorities to ensure dogs are not infected with diseases of concern (such as rabies).

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Although COVID-19 vaccination plans acknowledge a need for equity, disparities in two-dose vaccine initiation have been observed in the United States. We aim to assess if disparity patterns are emerging in COVID-19 vaccination completion. We gathered ( = 843,985) responses between February and November 2021 from a web survey.

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is a yeast-like basidiomycete that is an emerging opportunistic infection in immunocompromised patients. Urinary tract infections due to are rarely reported in the literature and typically seen only in immunocompromised patients. In addition to being immunocompromised, critically ill COVID-19 patients often have prolonged exposure to antibiotics, corticosteroids, and Foley catheters, which further increases their susceptibility to infection with There are limited case reports documenting successful treatment of among hospitalized patients, particularly among COVID-19 patients, in the literature.

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This study explored implant user and healthcare provider experiences of accessing and providing contraceptive implant removal services in Gaborone, Botswana, following introduction of the implant in the public sector in 2016. We sought to understand reasons for satisfaction and dissatisfaction with services and their potential impact on wider perceptions of the implant, including influence on future uptake. Qualitative data were collected through in-depth interviews.

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Purpose: To develop and validate an International Classification of Diseases, 10th Revision, Clinical Modification (ICD-10-CM)-based algorithm to identify cases of stillbirth using electronic healthcare data.

Methods: We conducted a retrospective study using claims data from three Data Partners (healthcare systems and insurers) in the Sentinel Distributed Database. Algorithms were developed using ICD-10-CM diagnosis codes to identify potential stillbirths among females aged 12-55 years between July 2016 and June 2018.

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Article Synopsis
  • A study developed and validated an algorithm to accurately identify lymphoma cases using ICD-10-CM codes in healthcare claims data for drug safety research.
  • The algorithm identified potential lymphoma cases based on specific coding criteria, resulting in 8723 identified cases, with a 77% positive predictive value after chart validation.
  • The approach is effective and cost-efficient, making it suitable for large-scale studies on drug safety and public health outcomes.
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Peripartum cardiomyopathy is a type of dilated cardiomyopathy in which the exact etiology is uncertain. HELLP syndrome is characterized by a constellation of different clinical and laboratory findings, including hemolysis, elevated liver enzymes, and low platelets. Few case reports exist detailing successful diagnosis and management of postpartum HELLP syndrome, peripartum cardiomyopathy, and multisystem organ failure in a previously healthy woman.

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Objective: To create and assess a clinic model to address the unmet need for effective contraception among women living with HIV in Botswana, where half of all pregnancies are unintended and 30% of women of reproductive age are living with HIV.

Methods: We introduced family planning services into an HIV clinic in Gaborone, Botswana. Our intervention gave HIV providers brief training on contraceptive counseling plus the option of immediate referral of interested patients to an on-site contraception provider.

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Objective: To compare plasma etonogestrel concentrations sampled from the contralateral- versus ipsilateral-to-implant arm.

Study Design: Sub-analysis of a cross-sectional study in Botswana in 33 participants who provided contralateral and ipsilateral blood samples.

Results: Plasma etonogestrel concentrations in contralateral and ipsilateral specimens were highly correlated (correlation coefficient = 0.

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