The California Department of Public Health (CDPHi) Director and
State Public Health Officer Dr. Karen Smith is warning
Californians to protect themselves from two invasive mosquito
species recently found in California. Both species can transmit
infectious diseases, such as dengue fever, chikungunya and yellow
fever. This warning comes as two more counties are added to the
list of counties where Aedes aegypti (the yellow fever mosquito)
and Aedes albopictus (the Asian tiger mosquito) have been
detected.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued a
health advisory to provide updated guidance to state health
departments and healthcare providers in the evaluation of
patients for MERS-CoV infection. The advisory includes a summary,
background, current status and recommendations for healthcare
providers for detection and testing of MERS-CoV infections
worldwide and recommendations for healthcare providers and health
departments.
The California Department of Public Health (CDPHi) is urging the
public to protect themselves against mosquito bites and
mosquito-borne diseases if traveling to Mexico or Latin America;
these regions have reported an increased occurence of chikungunya
and continued dengue transmission–reported cases of these
mosquito-borne diseases among travelers returning to California
have increased.
CIDRAP was founded in 2001 and is a global leader in addressing
public health preparedness and emerging infectious disease
response. Part of the Academic Health Center at the University of
Minnesota, CIDRAP is led by Michael Osterholm, PhD, MPH, director
and professor, Division of Environmental Health Sciences, School
of Public Health, an adjunct professor in the Medical School, and
an internationally renowned expert in public health.
The center reduces illness and death from infectious diseases by
effecting change through public policy refinement, fostering the
adoption of science-based best practices in public health among
professionals and the public, and conducting original
interdisciplinary research.
APIC releases guide for outpatient infection control during
disasters
To help prepare for protecting outpatients from infection during
disasters such as pandemics, bioterror attacks, or outbreaks of a
novel disease, the Association for Professionals in Infection
Control and Epidemiology (APIC) today released a new guide,
“Infection Prevention for Ambulatory Care Centers During
Disasters.”
The 112-page guide provides infection prevention recommendations
and resources for developing an emergency plan that includes
operational expansion for surges in patients. It focuses on
reducing hospital-acquired infections and communicable diseases
but says that some diseases, such as smallpox or viral
hemorrhagic fevers, require more intensive interventions than
those outlined in the guide.
The risk for infection transmission in ambulatory care centers
increases during a disaster, especially if hospitals cannot
absorb patient surges, APIC said in a release e-mailed to
reporters.
Topics in the guide include:
• Program
planning
• Patient
scheduling
• Triage and
surveillance
• Occupational
health issues
“Infection prevention must become part of daily practice, as well
as a component of the emergency management planning and training
scenarios for ambulatory care facilities,” said Terri Rebmann,
PhD, RN, lead author of the guide, and associate professor at
Saint Louis University School of Public Health’s Institute for
Biosecurity.
Multiple infections with variant* influenza A (H3N2v) viruses
have been identified in 3 states and has been isolated in
U.S. swine. While the viruses identified in these cases are
genetically nearly identical, separate swine exposure events in
different states were associated with human infections. There is
no indication that the cases in different states are
epidemiologically related.
More than half of the recent infections with H3N2v have occurred
after contact with pigs, but in some cases, the virus seems to
have spread from person-to-person. So far spread has not
continued beyond one or two people.
Clinical characteristics of the 16 H3N2v recent cases have been
generally consistent with signs and symptoms of seasonal
influenza, and have included fever, cough, pharyngitis, myalgia,
and headache. No hospitalizations or deaths have occurred among
the 16 confirmed cases since July 2012.
