Heavy Schistosomiasis Associated With Poor Short-Term Memory and Slower Reaction Times in Tanzania Schoolchildren

Cross-sectional studies of the relationship between helminth infection and cognitive function can be informative in ways that treatment studies cannot. However, interpretation of results of many previous studies has been complicated by the failure to control for many potentially confounding variables.We gave Tanzanian schoolchildren aged 9±14 a battery of 11 cognitive and three educational tests and\ud assessed their level of helminth infection. We also took measurements of an extensive range of potentially confounding or mediating factors such as socioeconomic and educational factors, anthropometric and other biomedical measures. A total of 272 children were moderately or heavily\ud infected with Schistosoma haematobium, hookworm or both helminth species and 117 were uninfected with either species. Multiple regression analyses, controlling for all confounding and mediating variables, revealed that children with a heavy S. haematobium infection had signi®cantly lower scores than uninfected children on two tests of verbal short-term memory and two reaction time tasks. In one of\ud these tests the effect was greatest for children with poor nutritional status. There was no association between infection and educational achievement, nor between moderate infection with either species of helminth and performance on the cognitive tests. We conclude that children with heavy worm burdens and poor nutritional status are most likely to suffer cognitive impairment, and the domains of verbal\ud short-term memory and speed of information processing are those most likely to be affected

Emerging Challenges and Opportunities in Infectious Disease Epidemiology.

Much of the intellectual tradition of modern epidemiology stems from efforts to understand and combat chronic diseases persisting through the 20th century epidemiologic transition of countries such as the United States and United Kingdom. After decades of relative obscurity, infectious disease epidemiology has undergone an intellectual rebirth in recent years amid increasing recognition of the threat posed by both new and familiar pathogens. Here, we review the emerging coalescence of infectious disease epidemiology around a core set of study designs and statistical methods bearing little resemblance to the chronic disease epidemiology toolkit. We offer our outlook on challenges and opportunities facing the field, including the integration of novel molecular and digital information sources into disease surveillance, the assimilation of such data into models of pathogen spread, and the increasing contribution of models to public health practice. We next consider emerging paradigms in causal inference for infectious diseases, ranging from approaches to evaluating vaccines and antimicrobial therapies to the task of ascribing clinical syndromes to etiologic microorganisms, an age-old problem transformed by our increasing ability to characterize human-associated microbiota. These areas represent an increasingly important component of epidemiology training programs for future generations of researchers and practitioners

Role of Epidemiological Studies in Disease Prevention

Today's society is full of disease that are of different natures including genetic, infectious and metabolic etc. Every disease has its own mechanisms of affecting humans and different prevention mechanisms as per disease nature. These factors are included in epidemiology of disease. Other factors include prevalence and incidence of diseases in different populations. Exactly knowing about disease epidemiology helps governing authorities to prevent the disease. Unfortunately, under-developed and developing nations are not focusing on diseases epidemiology. On the other hand, all developing nations developed best public health practices based on diseases epidemiology data. These studies may vary from basic epidemiological surveys to identification of microorganism strains etc

Networks and the epidemiology of infectious disease

The science of networks has revolutionised research into the dynamics of interacting elements. It could be argued that epidemiology in particular has embraced the potential of network theory more than any other discipline. Here we review the growing body of research concerning the spread of infectious diseases on networks, focusing on the interplay between network theory and epidemiology. The review is split into four main sections, which examine: the types of network relevant to epidemiology; the multitude of ways these networks can be characterised; the statistical methods that can be applied to infer the epidemiological parameters on a realised network; and finally simulation and analytical methods to determine epidemic dynamics on a given network. Given the breadth of areas covered and the ever-expanding number of publications, a comprehensive review of all work is impossible. Instead, we provide a personalised overview into the areas of network epidemiology that have seen the greatest progress in recent years or have the greatest potential to provide novel insights. As such, considerable importance is placed on analytical approaches and statistical methods which are both rapidly expanding fields. Throughout this review we restrict our attention to epidemiological issues

Epidemiology and economic impact of Johne's disease in Irish dairy herds

End of project reportThis project addressed two aspects of an emerging infectious disease of Irish cattle; the epidemiology and the economic impacts of Johne’s disease (paratuberculosis). Though this disease has been present in Irish cattle herds for decades, only since the introduction of the Single European Market in 1992 has it become more widespread. In addition to this change in the epidemiology of the disease in Irish cattle, there is increasing evidence that the causative organism, Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis (MAP) may be implicated in a human illness, Crohn’s disease, though proof of a zoonotic link is currently disputed (Tremblay, 2004). Against this background a collaborative research project was set up by Teagasc and funded by Irish dairy farmers

Who acquires infection from whom and how? Disentangling multi-host and multi-mode transmission dynamics in the 'elimination' era

Multi-host infectious agents challenge our abilities to understand, predict and manage disease dynamics. Within this, many infectious agents are also able to use, simultaneously or sequentially, multiple modes of transmission. Furthermore, the relative importance of different host species and modes can itself be dynamic, with potential for switches and shifts in host range and/ or transmission mode in response to changing selective pressures, such as those imposed by disease control interventions. The epidemiology of such multi-host, multi-mode infectious agents thereby can involve a multi-faceted community of definitive and intermediate/secondary hosts or vectors, often together with infectious stages in the environment, all of which may represent potential targets, as well as specific challenges, particularly where disease elimination is proposed. Here, we explore, focusing on examples fromboth human and animal pathogen systems, why and how we should aim to disentangle and quantify the relative importance of multi-host multi-mode infectious agent transmission dynamics under contrasting conditions, and ultimately, how this can be used to help achieve efficient and effective disease control. This article is part of the themed issue 'Opening the black box: re-examining the ecology and evolution of parasite transmission'

The influence of migration on the burden of and response to infectious disease threats in China: A theoretically informed review

Massive rural-to-urban migration in China may influence infectious disease spread, but the same powerful social forces that reliably promote migration can also be used to design more effective health systems. The authors systematically reviewed eight databases to identify research studies focused on migrant infectious disease epidemiology and control policies. They examined the sequential phases of rural-to-urban migration (pre-departure, travel, destination, interception, and return) in terms of their influence on infectious disease epidemiology and control policies. The migration process has a profound impact on the distribution of airborne, blood-borne, sexually transmitted, and mosquito-borne infectious diseases in addition to influencing potential control strategies. The spread of vaccine preventable diseases in China underscores the need for more responsive vaccination systems among migrants. Scaling up successful pilot migrant infectious disease control policies and new programmes are urgently needed in order to achieve health equity for Chinese migrants

EPID 9132 – Epidemiology of Infectious Diseases Transmitted via Bodily Fluids (aka Infectious Disease 2 listed in FOLIO)

This course covers advanced topics in epidemiology of infectious diseases transmitted via bodily fluids, primarily sexually transmitted infections and bloodborne infections. Important themes may include outbreak preparedness and response, surveillance, and interventions that prevent and control transmissions. Computational, mathematical and statistical tools relevant to the practice of infectious disease epidemiology will be introduced