The Association Between Hunter-Killed Deer and Lyme Disease in New Jersey, 2000-2014.

Years when the deer population is robust during the autumn hunting season may point toward an elevated risk of Lyme disease (LD) in the human population two summers later. We applied overdispersed Poisson regression models to county-specific data from New Jersey for each year from 2000 to 2014. The average relative risk of LD for each additional hunter-killed deer per square mile was 1.

University Students' Knowledge, Attitudes, and Sources of Information About Zika Virus.

Colleges and universities are valuable partners for community health education outreach targeted to young adults. After the outbreak of Zika virus infection in the Americas was declared to be a Public Health Emergency of International Concern on February 1, 2016, postsecondary institutions played an important role in educating at-risk communities about health promotion and disease prevention strategies. In April 2016, we recruited 613 undergraduate students from a large public university to complete a survey about their Zika-related knowledge, attitudes, and information seeking behaviors.

Breast Cancer Screening Among Korean Americans: A Systematic Review.

Cancer is the leading cause of death for Korean Americans (KAs). Breast cancer (BC) is the most commonly occurring cancer among KA women, and its rate has been rapidly increasing. Low BC screening rates for KAs puts them at greater risk for late-stage breast cancer.

Health-care availability, preference, and distance for women in urban Bo, Sierra Leone.

Objectives: To examine the diversity of the health-care providers in urban Bo, Sierra Leone, identify the types of health-care facilities preferred by women for fevers, and analyze the road network distances from homes to preferred health-care providers.

Methods: A population-based random sampling method was used to recruit 2419 women from Bo. A geographic information system was used to measure the road distance from each woman's home to her preferred provider.

Lessons from the Ebola Outbreak: Action Items for Emerging Infectious Disease Preparedness and Response.

As the Ebola outbreak in West Africa wanes, it is time for the international scientific community to reflect on how to improve the detection of and coordinated response to future epidemics. Our interdisciplinary team identified key lessons learned from the Ebola outbreak that can be clustered into three areas: environmental conditions related to early warning systems, host characteristics related to public health, and agent issues that can be addressed through the laboratory sciences. In particular, we need to increase zoonotic surveillance activities, implement more effective ecological health interventions, expand prediction modeling, support medical and public health systems in order to improve local and international responses to epidemics, improve risk communication, better understand the role of social media in outbreak awareness and response, produce better diagnostic tools, create better therapeutic medications, and design better vaccines.

Nonfatal injury incidence and risk factors among middle school students from four Polynesian countries: The Cook Islands, Niue, Samoa, and Tonga.

Introduction: The burden of injuries in Pacific Island countries is understudied despite the known challenges associated with many residents having limited access to advanced medical and surgical care when they sustain a serious injury. This paper examines nonfatal injuries among early adolescent schoolchildren (those primarily ages 13-15 years) from four Polynesian countries.

Methods: Self-reported data from the 5507 middle school students who were randomly sampled for participation in the nationwide Global School-based Student Health Surveys (GSHS) in the Cook Islands (in the year 2009), Niue (2010), Samoa (2011), and Tonga (2010) were analysed with various statistical methods including regression models.

Child bed net use before, during, and after a bed net distribution campaign in Bo, Sierra Leone.

Background: This analysis examined how the proportion of children less than 5-years-old who slept under a bed net the previous night changed during and after a national long-lasting insecticidal net (LLIN) distribution campaign in Sierra Leone in November-December 2010.

Methods: A citywide cross-sectional study in 2010-2011 interviewed the caregivers of more than 3000 under-five children from across urban Bo, Sierra Leone. Chi squared tests were used to assess change in use rates over time, and multivariate regression models were used to examine the factors associated with bed net use.

Attitudes toward home-based malaria testing in rural and urban Sierra Leone.

Background: The purpose of this study was to examine malaria testing practices and preferences in Bo, Sierra Leone, and to ascertain interest in and willingness to take a home-based rapid diagnostic test administered by a community health volunteer (CHV) or a trained family member rather than travelling to a clinical facility for laboratory-based testing.

Methods: A population-based, cross-sectional survey of 667 randomly-sampled rural households and 157 urban households was conducted in December 2013 and January 2014.

Results: Among rural residents, 69% preferred a self/family- or CHV-conducted home-based malaria test and 20% preferred a laboratory-based test (with others indicating no preference).

Predictors of compliance with scheduled surgery in rural Guatemala.

A non-governmental organization that helps low-income, rural, indigenous Guatemalans to have free or low-cost surgical care found that fewer than 60% of their patients kept their surgical appointments. The objective of this study was to identify the factors that predict compliance with scheduled surgery. All 690 surgical candidates screened by this organization between April 2008 and March 2009 and scheduled for surgery by August 2009 were included in this analysis.

Pyomyositis in Amazonian Ecuador.

Pyomyositis occurs when intramuscular abscesses appear in one or more body sites. Analysis of data from 165 patients with tropical pyomyositis diagnosed at a hospital in rural Amazonian Ecuador from 1980 to 1989 and 1995 to 2005 found that pyomyositis is more likely to affect males than females and more likely to affect children than adults. Abscesses were most commonly located on a lower extremity.

Loiasis: African eye worm.

The filarial parasite Loa loa is transmitted by Chrysops fly bites. Loiasis is endemic in rainforest areas of West and Central Africa, and sporadic cases have also been diagnosed in travellers and migrants. Whilst many infected persons are asymptomatic, microfilariae may be detected in the blood or adult worms may be seen under the skin or the sclera of the eye.