Outbreak investigations of and frozen raw breaded chicken: the mitigation of a significant public health issue in Canada.

In May 2017, whole-genome sequencing (WGS) became the primary subtyping method for in Canada. As a result of the increased discriminatory power provided by WGS, 16 multi-jurisdictional outbreaks of associated with frozen raw breaded chicken products were identified between 2017 and 2019. The majority (15/16) were associated with , while the remaining outbreak was associated with Heidelberg.

Two Listeria monocytogenes outbreaks in a cancer centre: onsite food premises and their potential health risk to patients.

Background: This report describes two L. monocytogenes outbreak investigations that occurred in March and September of 2018 and that linked illness to a food premises located in an Ontario cancer centre. The cancer centre serves patients from across the province.

Methodological changes implemented over time to support accurate and timely COVID-19 vaccine coverage estimates: Ontario, Canada.

The COVID-19 vaccination program implementation in Ontario, Canada has spanned multiple years and is ongoing. To meet the challenges of the program, Ontario developed and implemented a new electronic COVID-19 immunization registry, COVaxON, which captures individual-level data on all doses administered in the province enabling comprehensive coverage assessment. However, the need for ongoing COVID-19 vaccine coverage assessments over a multi-year vaccination program posed challenges necessitating methodological changes.

Getting a grippe on severity: a retrospective comparison of influenza-related hospitalizations and deaths captured in reportable disease and administrative data sources in Ontario, Canada.

Background: Since 2009, in Ontario, reportable disease surveillance data has been used for timely in-season estimates of influenza severity (i.e., hospitalizations and deaths).

Nuggets of Wisdom: Salmonella Enteritidis Outbreaks and the Case for New Rules on Uncooked Frozen Processed Chicken.

In 2014 and 2015, three Canadian Salmonella serotype Enteritidis outbreak investigations implicated uncooked, frozen, processed chicken products produced at the same establishment, namely establishment A. In November 2014, a sustained increase in the number of reported domestically acquired Salmonella Enteritidis cases in Ontario led to the first outbreak investigation, which implicated uncooked, frozen, processed chicken products produced at establishment A. In June 2015, the identification of pulsed-field gel electrophoresis patterns that had not been previously reported in Canada led to a national Salmonella Enteritidis investigation.

Descriptive study of enteric zoonoses in Ontario, Canada, from 2010 - 2012.

Background: Contact with animals and their environment has long been recognized as an important source of enteric zoonoses. However, there are limited data available on the burden of illness associated with specific types of animals in Canada. This study describes the overall burden of enteric zoonoses in Ontario, Canada from 2010 to 2012.

Data-driven approach of CUSUM algorithm in temporal aberrant event detection using interactive web applications.

Objective: In 2014/2015, Public Health Ontario developed disease-specific, cumulative sum (CUSUM)-based statistical algorithms for detecting aberrant increases in reportable infectious disease incidence in Ontario. The objective of this study was to determine whether the prospective application of these CUSUM algorithms, based on historical patterns, have improved specificity and sensitivity compared to the currently used Early Aberration Reporting System (EARS) algorithm, developed by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Method: A total of seven algorithms were developed for the following diseases: cyclosporiasis, giardiasis, influenza (one each for type A and type B), mumps, pertussis, invasive pneumococcal disease.

Neisseria gonorrhoeae-derived heptose elicits an innate immune response and drives HIV-1 expression.

Clinical and epidemiological synergy exists between the globally important sexually transmitted infections, gonorrhea and HIV. Neisseria gonorrhoeae, which causes gonorrhea, is particularly adept at driving HIV-1 expression, but the molecular determinants of this relationship remain undefined. N.

A standardized ZAP-70 assay--lessons learned in the trenches.

Background: The disease of chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) has been shown to exhibit varying clinical outcomes based on reported laboratory parameters. One of these parameters involves the measurement of the protein levels of zeta-associated protein (ZAP-70) in CLL cells. A standardized assay has not yet reached consensus in the clinical cytometry community.