Optimizing contact tracing for avian influenza in poultry flocks.

Contact tracing is commonly used to manage infectious diseases of both humans and animals. It aims to detect early and control potentially infected individuals or farms that had contact with infectious cases. Because it is very resource-intensive, contact tracing is usually performed on a pre-defined time window, based on previous knowledge of the duration of the incubation period.

The optimisation of Salmonella surveillance programmes for pullet and layer farms using local farm density as a risk factor.

Human salmonellosis cases are often caused by Salmonella serovars Enteritidis and Typhimurium and associated with the consumption of eggs and egg products. Many countries therefore implemented general surveillance programmes on pullet and layer farms. The identification of risk factors for Salmonella infection may be used to improve the performance of these surveillance programmes.

Estimating the introduction time of highly pathogenic avian influenza into poultry flocks.

The estimation of farm-specific time windows for the introduction of highly-pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) virus can be used to increase the efficiency of disease control measures such as contact tracing and may help to identify risk factors for virus introduction. The aims of this research are to (1) develop and test an accurate approach for estimating farm-specific virus introduction windows and (2) evaluate this approach by applying it to 11 outbreaks of HPAI (H5N8) on Dutch commercial poultry farms during the years 2014 and 2016. We used a stochastic simulation model with susceptible, infectious and recovered/removed disease stages to generate distributions for the period from virus introduction to detection.

Burden of varicella complications in secondary care, England, 2004 to 2017.

BackgroundStrategies to control varicella vary across Europe. Evidence from established programmes has prompted the United Kingdom to re-evaluate the need for universal vaccination. The burden of complicated varicella is a key parameter in the cost-effectiveness analysis.

Impact and Cost-effectiveness of Selective Human Papillomavirus Vaccination of Men Who Have Sex With Men.

Background: Men who have sex with men (MSM) have a high lifetime risk of anogenital warts and cancers related to infection with human papillomavirus (HPV). They also benefit less from herd protection than heterosexual males in settings with female-only HPV vaccination.

Methods: We evaluated the potential health impact and cost-effectiveness of offering vaccination to MSM who visit genitourinary medicine (GUM) clinics.