Responding to a school SARS-CoV-2 outbreak: Insights and policy implications emerging from the pandemic.

Background: The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has affected also the school environment. Prolonged closures and the weakness of available data prevent a definitive answer to the question of school transmission. We report our experience of responding to COVID-19 cases in the school setting, presenting a case study of the management of an outbreak in a large school.

Cholera epidemic in Yemen, 2016-18: an analysis of surveillance data.

Background: In war-torn Yemen, reports of confirmed cholera started in late September, 2016. The disease continues to plague Yemen today in what has become the largest documented cholera epidemic of modern times. We aimed to describe the key epidemiological features of this epidemic, including the drivers of cholera transmission during the outbreak.

Measuring functioning and disability after a disaster: results from the typhoon Haiyan/Yolanda-affected areas of the Philippines.

The most commonly reported data after natural disasters are the number of deceased and displaced and the structural and economic damage, whereas disability data are often lacking. Our study assessed disability among the survivors of the Haiyan/Yolanda typhoon that struck Philippines in 2013 and is aimed to identify which context-level variables are associated with higher disability. We used a cross-sectional design and administered a household questionnaire, an individual sociodemographic questionnaire, and the WHODAS 2.

New and low-cost auto-algometry for screening hypertension-associated hypoalgesia.

Objective: The aim of the present work was to measure the pain threshold in hypertensive patients with a new auto-algometry method.

Design And Setting: Auto-algometry consists of asking the subjects to push their fingers against a fixed round-tip needle until they feel a pain sensation. An electronic force transducer permits the measurement of the force applied by the subjects and storage of the data on a personal computer.

Disease eradication, elimination and control: the need for accurate and consistent usage.

This article seeks to clarify the terminology associated with disease control, elimination and eradication programmes. There are several global activities under way, which are initiated and guided by resolutions of the World Health Assembly. Scrutiny of the feasibility of achieving eradication goals by bodies such as the International Task Force for Disease Eradication has identified diseases that could be eradicated.

Ensuring supplies of quality diethylcarbamazine citrate (DEC).

In 1997, the World Health Organization (WHO) made a commitment to eliminate lymphatic filariasis. The WHO Global Program to Eliminate Lymphatic Filariasis (WHO-FIL) needed a reliable supply of diethylcarbamazine citrate (DEC) of known acceptable quality at an affordable price, so in August 1999, it started the DEC Project. Today's standards required development of a modern stability-indicating assay method for DEC and for DEC tablet dissolution.

Dracunculiasis (Guinea worm disease) and the eradication initiative.

Dracunculiasis, also known as guinea worm disease, is caused by the large female of the nematode Dracunculus medinensis, which emerges painfully and slowly from the skin, usually on the lower limbs. The disease can infect animals, and sustainable animal cycles occur in North America and Central Asia but do not act as reservoirs of human infection. The disease is endemic across the Sahel belt of Africa from Mauritania to Ethiopia, having been eliminated from Asia and some African countries.

When is a disease eradicable? 100 years of lessons learned.

Since the 1915 launch of the first international eradication initiative targeting a human pathogen, much has been learned about the determinants of eradicability of an organism. The authors outline the first 4 eradication efforts, summarizing the lessons learned in terms of the 3 types of criteria for disease eradication programs: (1) biological and technical feasibility, (2) costs and benefits, and (3) societal and political considerations.

[Endemic dracunculiasis in new villages: re-emergence of the disease or failure of the surveillance system].

According to data sent to Bamako in March 1998 for the annual review of National Programs for the Eradication of the Guinea Worm (NPEGV), dracunculiasis was observed in 211 villages in Burkina Faso in 1997. Of this total, 110 (52 p. 100) were new villages not previously reporting dracunculiasis.

Epidemiological data on burn injuries in Angola: a retrospective study of 7230 patients.

This study describes the work carried out at the Burn Unit of the Neves Bendinha Hospital, Luanuda, Angola, during the 3-year period July 1991 to June 1994. During this period we admitted 2569 burned patients to our burn unit, and 4661 were treated on an outpatient basis. The data from the patients were analysed to indicate the distribution according to age, sex, TBSA, cause of the lesion and mortality.

Post-emergency epidemiological surveillance in Iraqi-Kurdish refugee camps in Iran.

In 1991 a computerized, comprehensive epidemiological surveillance system was developed to monitor health trends in approximately 25,000 acutely displaced Kurds in Nowsood and Saryas refugee camps, Bakhtaran region, Northwestern Iran. In addition, community-based surveys offered information unobtainable from health facilities. Weekly population movements, attack rates, point-prevalence estimates, and case fatality ratios were calculated, and the data were analysed and compared.