Evaluation of the International Task Force for Disease Eradication: A Review of Past Deliberations.

The International Task Force for Disease Eradication (ITFDE) was formed at The Carter Center in 1988. Its primary purpose is to review activities and provide recommendations related to programs focused on eradication. The ITFDE also considers opportunities for disease elimination and improved control.

Slaying the Serpent: A Research Agenda to Expand Intervention Development and Accelerate Guinea Worm Eradication Efforts.

Dracunculiasis, also known as Guinea worm disease, is targeted to become the second human disease and first parasitic infection to be eradicated. The global Guinea Worm Eradication Program (GWEP), through community-based interventions, reduced the burden of disease from an estimated 3.5 million cases per year in 1986 to only 13 human cases in 2022.

Advancing Health Security and Disease Eradication Through Peace and Health: A Mali Case Study.

Conflict and violence constitute threats to public health. As levels of conflict increase within and between countries, it is important to explore how conflict resolution initiatives can be adapted to meet the health needs of communities, and how addressing the health needs of communities can assist in conflict resolution and contribute to health security. In conflict-affected central Mali, a Peace through Health Initiative, piloted between 2018 and 2022, used conflict resolution trainings, facilitated community meetings, and human and animal health interventions to negotiate "periods of tranquility" to achieve public health goals.

Addressing the challenges of implementing evidence-based prioritisation in global health.

Global health requires evidence-based approaches to improve health and decrease inequalities. In a roundtable discussion between health practitioners, funders, academics and policy-makers, we recognised key areas for improvement to deliver better-informed, sustainable and equitable global health practices. These focus on considering information-sharing mechanisms and developing evidence-based frameworks that take an adaptive function-based approach, grounded in the ability to perform and respond to prioritised needs.

Dracunculiasis Eradication: End-Stage Challenges.

This report summarizes the status of the global Dracunculiasis Eradication Program as of the end of 2021. Dracunculiasis (Guinea worm disease) has been eliminated from 17 of 21 countries where it was endemic in 1986, when an estimated 3.5 million cases occurred worldwide.

Field epidemiology training programs contribute to COVID-19 preparedness and response globally.

Background: Field epidemiology training programs (FETPs) have trained field epidemiologists who strengthen global capacities for surveillance and response to public health threats. We describe how FETP residents and graduates have contributed to COVID-19 preparedness and response globally.

Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional survey of FETPs between March 13 and April 15, 2020 to understand how FETP residents or graduates were contributing to COVID-19 response activities.

One Field Epidemiologist per 200,000 Population: Lessons Learned from Implementing a Global Public Health Workforce Target.

The World Health Organization monitoring and evaluation framework for the International Health Regulations (IHR, 2005) describes the targets for the Joint External Evaluation (JEE) indicators. For workforce development, the JEE defines the optimal target for attaining and complying with the IHR (2005) as 1 trained field epidemiologist (or equivalent) per 200,000 population. We explain the derivation and use of the current field epidemiology workforce development target and identify the limitations and lessons learned in applying it to various countries' public health systems.

Development of a Costed National Action Plan for Health Security in Pakistan: Lessons Learned.

In order to assess progress toward achieving compliance with the International Health Regulations (2005), member states may voluntarily request a Joint External Evaluation (JEE). Pakistan was the first country in the WHO Eastern Mediterranean Region to volunteer for and complete a JEE to establish the baseline of the country's public health capacity across multiple sectors covering 19 technical areas. It subsequently developed a post-JEE costed National Action Plan for Health Security (NAPHS).

Analysis of Joint External Evaluations in the WHO Eastern Mediterranean Region.

Background: Joint External Evaluation (JEE) was developed as a new model of peer-to-peer expert external evaluations of IHR capacities using standardized approaches.

Aims: This study aimed to consolidate findings of these assessments in the Eastern Mediterranean Region and assess their significance.

Methods: Analysis of the data were conducted for 14 countries completing JEE in the Region.

World Health Organization Joint External Evaluations in the Eastern Mediterranean Region, 2016-17.

By 2014, only 33% of countries had self-reported compliance with the International Health Regulations (2005), including 8 countries from the Eastern Mediterranean Region (EMR). During the Ebola epidemic, the discovery of a gap between objective assessment and self-reports for certain IHR capacities prompted the World Health Organization (WHO) to review and update the IHR monitoring and evaluation framework to include a voluntary objective review process, called Joint External Evaluation (JEE), that did not exist before. The regional committee for the EMR approved the JEE and encouraged its 21 member states to volunteer for reviews.

Joint External Evaluation-Development and Scale-Up of Global Multisectoral Health Capacity Evaluation Process.

The Joint External Evaluation (JEE), a consolidation of the World Health Organization (WHO) International Health Regulations 2005 (IHR 2005) Monitoring and Evaluation Framework and the Global Health Security Agenda country assessment tool, is an objective, voluntary, independent peer-to-peer multisectoral assessment of a country's health security preparedness and response capacity across 19 IHR technical areas. WHO approved the standardized JEE tool in February 2016. The JEE process is wholly transparent; countries request a JEE and are encouraged to make its findings public.

US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Its Partners' Contributions to Global Health Security.

To achieve compliance with the revised World Health Organization International Health Regulations (IHR 2005), countries must be able to rapidly prevent, detect, and respond to public health threats. Most nations, however, remain unprepared to manage and control complex health emergencies, whether due to natural disasters, emerging infectious disease outbreaks, or the inadvertent or intentional release of highly pathogenic organisms. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) works with countries and partners to build and strengthen global health security preparedness so they can quickly respond to public health crises.

Role of the Health Department in Tuberculosis Prevention and Control-Legal and Public Health Considerations.

Because tuberculosis is caused by an infectious organism that is spread from person to person through the air, public health measures are essential to control the disease. There are three priority strategies for tuberculosis prevention and control in the United States: (i) identifying and treating persons who have tuberculosis disease; (ii) finding persons exposed to infectious tuberculosis patients, evaluating them for Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection and disease, and providing subsequent treatment, if appropriate; and (iii) testing populations at high risk for latent tuberculosis infection (LTBI) and treating those persons who are infected to prevent progression to disease. These strategies for prevention and control of tuberculosis are discussed in a framework containing the following important topics: historical and epidemiological context of tuberculosis control, organization of public health tuberculosis control programs, legal basis for public health authority, conducting overall planning and development of policy, identifying persons who have clinically active tuberculosis, evaluation of immigrants, managing persons who have or who are suspected of having disease, medical consultation, interjurisdictional referrals, identifying and managing persons infected with Mycobacterium tuberculosis, providing laboratory and diagnostic services, collecting and analyzing data, and providing training and education.

Integrating genome-based informatics to modernize global disease monitoring, information sharing, and response.

The rapid advancement of genome technologies holds great promise for improving the quality and speed of clinical and public health laboratory investigations and for decreasing their cost. The latest generation of genome DNA sequencers can provide highly detailed and robust information on disease-causing microbes, and in the near future these technologies will be suitable for routine use in national, regional, and global public health laboratories. With additional improvements in instrumentation, these next- or third-generation sequencers are likely to replace conventional culture-based and molecular typing methods to provide point-of-care clinical diagnosis and other essential information for quicker and better treatment of patients.

International Health Regulations--what gets measured gets done.

The global spread of severe acute respiratory syndrome highlighted the need to detect and control disease outbreaks at their source, as envisioned by the 2005 revised International Health Regulations (IHR). June 2012 marked the initial deadline by which all 194 World Health Organization (WHO) member states agreed to have IHR core capacities fully implemented for limiting the spread of public health emergencies of international concern. Many countries fell short of these implementation goals and requested a 2-year extension.

Tuberculosis outbreak investigations in the United States, 2002-2008.

To understand circumstances of tuberculosis transmission that strain public health resources, we systematically reviewed Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) staff reports of US outbreaks in which CDC participated during 2002-2008 that involved ≥3 culture-confirmed tuberculosis cases linked by genotype and epidemiology. Twenty-seven outbreaks, representing 398 patients, were reviewed. Twenty-four of the 27 outbreaks involved primarily US-born patients; substance abuse was another predominant feature of outbreaks.

Identification of factors for tuberculosis transmission via an integrated multidisciplinary approach.

It was reported previously that the major fraction of the recent decrease of tuberculosis incident cases in Arkansas had been due to a decrease in the reactivated infections. Preventing transmission of Mycobacterium tuberculosis is the key to a continued decline in tuberculosis cases. In this study, we integrated epidemiological data analysis and comparative genomics to identify host and microbial factors important to tuberculosis transmission.