Recent cases of invasive alien mites and ticks in Japan: why is a regulatory framework needed?

Japan’s economy depends on the importation of natural resources, and as a result, Japan is subjected to a high risk of biological invasion. Although Japan has quarantine systems to protect ecosystems, agriculture, forestry, fisheries, and human health against alien species, economic globalization has resulted in an ever-increasing risk of invasion. Mite invasion is no exception. Alien species that impact natural ecosystems are regulated in Japan by the Invasive Alien Species Act. However, the law focuses only on visibly recognizable species, so that species too small to see, such as viruses, bacteria, fungi, and mites, are beyond the scope of this law. The Plant Protection Law has limited the introduction of alien pests, including mites, that are harmful to agricultural crops. Recently, the liberalization of global trade policies have increased pressure to loosen regulations on various pests, including spider mites. Infectious diseases and their causative species are quarantined under the Rabies Prevention Law, the Domestic Animal Infectious Diseases Control Law, and the Human Infectious Diseases Control Law, but these laws do not cover wildlife diseases. The most serious problem is that wild reptiles, which can be carriers of ticks and tick-borne diseases, can be freely introduced to Japan. These loopholes in Japan’s regulatory system have resulted in mite and tick invasions, which affect not only wildlife communities and human society but also endemism and biological diversity of natural mite populations.     

Prevalence of moderate and severe depression among Croatian patients infected with human immunodeficiency virus

The aim of the study was to assess the prevalence of depression among Croatian patients infected with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and to make a comparison with patients with other acute and chronic infectious diseases. We assessed the depressive disorder using the Beck Depression Inventory questionnaire (BDI), without clinical confirmation. The BDI scores were examined in 80 HIV-infected persons and compared to 80 persons with chronic viral hepatitis and 78 with acute infectious diarrhea. All examinees were treated as outpatients at the University Hospital for Infectious Diseases in Zagreb in March and April of 2003. Prevalence of moderate and severe depression among HIV-infected was 16/80 (20%) with a 95% confidence interval 11% to 29%. Male patients with HIV or chronic viral hepatitis had a significantly higher BDI scores than males with acute infectious diarrhea (p = 0.017, Kruskall-Wallis, d.f. 2). Female patients with HIV infection tended to have a lower BDI score than females with chronic viral hepatitis or acute infectious diarrhea (p = 0.087, Kruskall-Wallis, d.f. 2). Prevalence of moderate and severe depression among Croatian HIV-positive patients is higher than the upper estimate for general population. Croatian males with chronic infectious disease have higher rate of depression than those with acute infectious disease.     

International infrastructure to control infectious diseases

Remarkable gains in the control of infectious diseases have occurred during the twentieth century. These have permitted life expectancles to approach 80 years for one fifth of the world's population. To effect reductions in child mortality to the rest, structured changes such as economic improvement, basic sanitation, education, reduced population growth and improvements in agriculture and nutrition are needed. Nearly US$40 billion in development investment supports these fundamental changes. For the near term, vertical programmes such as the Expanded Program on Immunization afford critical reductions in child mortality at relatively low cost. A network of multinational and bilateral agencies support structural and programmatic changes. Research holds the promise of improving still further the efficacy and cost-effectiveness of infectious disease control programmes. Leading causes of child mortality and their social and economic correlates are reviewed.This paper was presented at the IUMS Symposium on New Developments in Diagnosis and Control of Infectious Diseases held in conjunction with the Eighth International Congress of Virology, Berlin, Germany, 24–31 August 1990.     

加强传染病管理与医院感染管理

目的:探讨传染病防治管理措施的应用价值与效果.方法:以2009年1月至2010年6月间的院内管理为对照组;以2010年7月至2011年12月间的院内管理措施为研究组,采用传染病防治管理措施.结果:两组管理方法传染病患者发生率无显著差异(P＞0.05);研究组传染病预防管理措施院内感染发生率明显低于对照组,数据经统计学比较具有显著差异(P＜0.05).研究组管理方法下患者临床满意度明显高于对照组,数据经统计学比较具有显著差异(P＜0.05).结论:传染病预防管理措施有利于有效阻断院内感染源的传播,进而减少交叉感染发生率,提高患者满意度.     

Animal diseases affecting human welfare in developing countries: impacts and control

Animal diseases adversely affect human populations by reducing the amount and quality of food and fiber, and draft power. Epizootics of diseases such as rinderpest have caused massive mortality among domestic and wild animals. Extensive outbreaks of Venezuelan equine encephalltis have caused massive mortality in equines, and significant morbidity among people. Foot-and-mouth disease can cause high morbidity and great direct economic loss, and loss of markets as a trade barrier. Old diseases such as yellow fever and Rift Valley fever are still with us, and diseases such as the viral haemorrhagic fevers have suddenly appeared for the first time. The transmission of some of these diseases has been facilitated inadvertently by ecological change resulting from development projects. Animal disease control must be based on dealing with disease agents, and their hosts and vectors, as part of ecosystems and farming systems. Better disease surveiliance, diagnosis and reporting is needed. The economics of disease loss and the benefits of interventions must become part of the decision-making process.This paper was presented at the IUMS Symposium on New Developments in Diagnosis and Control of Infectious Diseases held in conjunction with the Eighth International Congress of Virology, Berlin, Germany, 24–31 August 1990.     

医院传染病管理及控制措施

目的：探讨医院传染病管理制度对控制和预防感染的效果。方法：我院自2011年1月起实施医院传染病管理制度,将该年度病例列入研究组,取2010年1月至12月间病例列入对照组,分别比较两组传染病发生情况和抗生素应用情况。结果：研究组传染病发生率明显低于对照组,数据经统计学比较具有显著差异（P〈0．05）。研究组发生抗生素滥用的科室率明显低于对照组,数据经统计学比较具有显著差异（P〈0．05）。结论：传染病管理制度可有效降低院内传染病发生率,减少抗生素的临床滥用事件发生,从而提高了医疗工作的安全性,也提升了医院的管理水平。     

The Okinawa Infectious Diseases Initiative

At the Kyushu-Okinawa Group of Eight summit in 2000, Japan announced the Okinawa Infectious Diseases Initiative (IDI) and pledged to spend US$3 billion over a five year period to combat infectious and parasitic diseases in developing countries. The IDI has exceeded expectations, spending more than US$4 billion over four years. The IDI is a unique initiative with its own philosophical basis and specifically tailored interventions and measures that helped to initiate worldwide political and financial commitments in the fight against infectious diseases. Notably, it promoted partnerships among stakeholders and emphasized comprehensive and inter-sectoral approaches (i.e. coordination and collaboration between health and other sectors). It helped to create a new vision of what is possible in the global effort against communicable diseases and has been instrumental in shaping the changing environments of development assistance, poverty reduction and other trends to reduce the impact of infectious and parasitic diseases.     

手足口病的流行病学特征及防治对策

手足口病是由多种肠道病毒引起的常见传染病,多发生于学龄前儿童。近年来我国许多地方不断报道有手足口病的暴发流行,且并发症发生率和病死率也有增高的趋势。2008年,我国将手足口病纳入《传染病防治法》丙类传染病管理。本文对手足口病的病原学及流行病学特征、临床症状及诊断、预防、治疗措施等进行了综述。     

Seasonality of primarily childhood and young adult infectious diseases in the United States

The Center for Disease Control (CDC) in the United States collects and maintains records of communicable (so-called notifiable) infectious diseases that cause significant morbidity and mortality and impact the national economy. This investigation focused on seasonal patterns in the primarily childhood and young adult infectious diseases of meningococcal meningitis, mumps, pertussis, typhoid fever, streptococcal toxic shock syndrome (1990 to 2003 CDC database), and varicella (1993 to 2003 CDC database). Linear regression was performed to ascertain the trend in the incidence of each disease, and multi-component cosinor analysis was applied to determine and describe periodicities. Significant decreasing trends in incidence were detected in meningococcal meningitis, mumps, typhoid fever, and streptococcal toxic shock syndrome, and increasing trends were found in pertussis and varicella. Significant annual patterns were documented in meningococcal meningitis (January peak), mumps (April peak), pertussis (August peak), varicella (April peak), typhoid fever (August peak), and in the hospital-acquired streptococcal toxic shock syndrome (February peak). Such seasonal patterns and long-term trends in infectious diseases are of practical public health significance in indicating which can benefit from timely prevention interventions.     

新时期提升传染病区医院管理的有效策略

目的：探讨新时期提升传染病区医院管理水平的有效策略。方法：通过对传染病区医院感染因素进行探究,制定出适用于医院实际的感染预防策略。结果：制定和落实医院预防感染的规章制度,实施严格的职业防护培训,完善传染病区医院管理的诸项策略,能有效降低医院感染发生率。结论：传染病区是医院感染发生的高危地带,加强对传染病区的规范化管理,能起到良好的传染病预防效果。     

Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever

Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever (CCHF) is an acute infectious disease caused by CCHF virus (CCHFV), a member of the family Bunyaviridae, genus Nairovirus. The case fatality rate of CCHF ranges from 10-40%. Because CCHF is not present in Japan, many Japanese virologists and clinicians are not very familiar with this disease. However, there remains the possibility of an introduction of CCHFV or other hemorrhagic fever viruses into Japan from surrounding endemic areas. Development of diagnostic laboratory capacity for viral hemorrhagic fevers is necessary even in countries without these diseases. At the National Institute of Infectious Diseases, Tokyo, Japan, laboratory-based systems such as recombinant protein-based antibody detection, antigen-capture and pathological examination have been developed. In this review article, epidemiologic and clinical data on CCHF in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, compiled through field investigations and diagnostic testing utilizing the aforementioned laboratory systems, are presented. CCHFV infections are closely associated with the environmental conditions, life styles, religion, occupation, and human economic activities. Based on these data, preventive measures for CCHFV infections are also discussed.     

Molecular diagnostics of medically important bacterial infections

Infectious diseases are common diseases all over the world. A recent World Health Organization report indicated that infectious diseases are now the world's biggest killer of children and young adults. Infectious diseases in non-industrialized countries caused 45% in all and 63% of death in early childhood. In developed countries, the emergence of new, rare or already-forgotten infectious diseases, such as HIV/AIDS, Lyme disease and tuberculosis, has stimulated public interest and inspired commitments to surveillance and control. Recently, it is reported that infectious diseases are responsible for more than 17 million deaths worldwide each year, most of which are associated with bacterial infections. Hence, the control of infectious diseases control is still an important task in the world. The ability to control such bacterial infections is largely dependent on the ability to detect these aetiological agents in the clinical microbiology laboratory. Diagnostic medical bacteriology consists of two main components namely identification and typing. Molecular biology has the potential to revolutionise the way in which diagnostic tests are delivered in order to optimise care of the infected patient, whether they occur in hospital or in the community. Since the discovery of PCR in the late 1980s, there has been an enormous amount of research performed which has enabled the introduction of molecular tests to several areas of routine clinical microbiology. Molecular biology techniques continue to evolve rapidly, so it has been problematic for many laboratories to decide upon which test to introduce before that technology becomes outdated. However the vast majority of diagnostic clinical bacteriology laboratories do not currently employ any form of molecular diagnostics but the use such technology is becoming more widespread in both specialized regional laboratories as well as in national reference laboratories. Presently molecular biology offers a wide repertoire of techniques and permutations of these analytical tools, hence this article wishes to explore the application of these in the diagnostic laboratory setting.     

剑阁县2001～2010 年法定传染病流行特征及防治对策分析

目的:通过分析10年法定传染病疲情的流行趋势和三间分布特征,为制定传染病预防控制策略和措施提供依据.方法:采用描述性流行病学方法分析疫情趋势和三间分布情况,数据资料用SPSS10.0和Excel 2003进行统计分析.结果:2001～2010年共报告乙、丙类传染病25种26 129例,年均发病率386.89/10万,年均死亡率0.15/10万,10年间报告法定传染病以血源及性传播传染病和呼吸道传染病为主,居第1位的是血源及性传播传染病,共报告5种12 453例,占53.03％;其次是呼吸道传染病,共报告5种9828例,占41.85％,近3年发病居于各类传染病首位;第三位的是肠道传染病,共报5种1149例,占4.89％.发病居前5位的传染为乙肝、肺结核、流行性腮腺炎、痢疾、麻疹,主要传染病以乙肝、肺结核为主,近年性传播疾病呈快速增长趋势.结论:血源及性传播传染病和呼吸道传染病是今后重点防控传染病.     

On the dynamics of SEIRS epidemic model with transport-related infection

Transportation amongst cities is found as one of the main factors which affect the outbreak of diseases. To understand the effect of transport-related infection on disease spread, an SEIRS (Susceptible, Exposed, Infectious, Recovered) epidemic model for two cities is formulated and analyzed. The epidemiological threshold, known as the basic reproduction number, of the model is derived. If the basic reproduction number is below unity, the disease-free equilibrium is locally asymptotically stable. Thus, the disease can be eradicated from the community. There exists an endemic equilibrium which is locally asymptotically stable if the reproduction number is larger than unity. This means that the disease will persist within the community. The results show that transportation among regions will change the disease dynamics and break infection out even if infectious diseases will go to extinction in each isolated region without transport-related infection. In addition, the result shows that transport-related infection intensifies the disease spread if infectious diseases break out to cause an endemic situation in each region, in the sense of that both the absolute and relative size of patients increase. Further, the formulated model is applied to the real data of SARS outbreak in 2003 to study the transmission of disease during the movement between two regions. The results show that the transport-related infection is effected to the number of infected individuals and the duration of outbreak in such the way that the disease becomes more endemic due to the movement between two cities. This study can be helpful in providing the information to public health authorities and policy maker to reduce spreading disease when its occurs.     

“微生物、免疫与感染性疾病”整合课程师资培养的研究与实践

“微生物、免疫与感染性疾病整合课程”的师资培养是一个重要的问题。本教研室建立了《微生物、免疫与感染性疾病整合课程青年教师培养制度》,通过对青年教师的系统培训,提高青年教师对免疫学相关学科的理解,使其能够胜任“微生物、免疫与感染性疾病整合课程”的教学工作。     

Seasonality of Primarily Childhood and Young Adult Infectious Diseases in the United States

The Center for Disease Control (CDC) in the United States collects and maintains records of communicable (so‐called notifiable) infectious diseases that cause significant morbidity and mortality and impact the national economy. This investigation focused on seasonal patterns in the primarily childhood and young adult infectious diseases of meningococcal meningitis, mumps, pertussis, typhoid fever, streptococcal toxic shock syndrome (1990 to 2003 CDC database), and varicella (1993 to 2003 CDC database). Linear regression was performed to ascertain the trend in the incidence of each disease, and multi‐component cosinor analysis was applied to determine and describe periodicities. Significant decreasing trends in incidence were detected in meningococcal meningitis, mumps, typhoid fever, and streptococcal toxic shock syndrome, and increasing trends were found in pertussis and varicella. Significant annual patterns were documented in meningococcal meningitis (January peak), mumps (April peak), pertussis (August peak), varicella (April peak), typhoid fever (August peak), and in the hospital‐acquired streptococcal toxic shock syndrome (February peak). Such seasonal patterns and long‐term trends in infectious diseases are of practical public health significance in indicating which can benefit from timely prevention interventions.     

The Pathogen- and Incidence-Based DALY Approach: An Appropriated Methodology for Estimating the Burden of Infectious Diseases

In 2009, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control initiated the ‘Burden of Communicable Diseases in Europe (BCoDE)’ project to generate evidence-based and comparable burden-of-disease estimates of infectious diseases in Europe. The burden-of-disease metric used was the Disability-Adjusted Life Year (DALY), composed of years of life lost due to premature death (YLL) and due to disability (YLD). To better represent infectious diseases, a pathogen-based approach was used linking incident cases to sequelae through outcome trees. Health outcomes were included if an evidence-based causal relationship between infection and outcome was established. Life expectancy and disability weights were taken from the Global Burden of Disease Study and alternative studies. Disease progression parameters were based on literature. Country-specific incidence was based on surveillance data corrected for underestimation. Non-typhoidal Salmonella spp. and Campylobacter spp. were used for illustration. Using the incidence- and pathogen-based DALY approach the total burden for Salmonella spp. and Campylobacter spp. was estimated at 730 DALYs and at 1,780 DALYs per year in the Netherlands (average of 2005–2007). Sequelae accounted for 56% and 82% of the total burden of Salmonella spp. and Campylobacter spp., respectively. The incidence- and pathogen-based DALY methodology allows in the case of infectious diseases a more comprehensive calculation of the disease burden as subsequent sequelae are fully taken into account. Not considering subsequent sequelae would strongly underestimate the burden of infectious diseases. Estimates can be used to support prioritisation and comparison of infectious diseases and other health conditions, both within a country and between countries.     

Meeting report: How to get wrong things right--a discussion over current and future pandemic infectious diseases

Infectious diseases have played a substantial part in shaping the history of humanity. In a discussion at a recent EMBL-EMBO science and society symposium entitled 'The future of our species', several experts discussed how infectious diseases are still influencing our world today. Here we present examples from recent and current infectious disease epidemics followed by a discussion of the local, national and international response to these. Special emphasis is laid on how the change of our environment can augment the world-wide spread of infectious diseases and the role of education in limiting this spread. An urgent need for improved coordinative efforts in globally combating infectious diseases is called for and examples are highlighted.     

Vaccine preventable viral diseases in developing countries

There are several viral infectious diseases with a high impact on developing countries which can be prevented by immunization with existing vaccines. The most important are poliomyelitis, measles, hepatitis B and yellow fever. Vaccines against poliomyelitis and measles used within the framework of the WHO/Expanded Programme on Immunization prevent about 1.4 million deaths from measles and 360,000 cases of paralytic polio per year in developing countries, but about 1.5 million measles' deaths and 200,000 cases of paralytic polio still occur. Hepatitis B infection and its sequelae are responsible for over 50 million infections and one million deaths annually. Highly effective hepatitis B vaccines are now available and the price of these vaccines for the developing world has fallen dramatically. Despite the availability of a safe and efficacious yellow fever vaccine since 1937, 5400 cases of this disease with 3200 deaths were reported in Africa and South America from 1986 to 1988. Because of the efficacy of existing vaccines and the lack of animal reservoirs or vectors, systematic vaccination programmes within the framework of the Expanded Programme on Immunization (EPI) could theoretically eliminate and even eradicate poliomyelltis, measles and hepatitis B. Many different obstacles need to be overcome before these goals are realized.This paper was presented at the IUMS Symposium on New Developments in Diagnosis and Control of Infectious Diseases held in conjunction with the Eighth International Congress of Virology, Berlin, Germany, 24–31 August 1990.     

剑阁县2001-2010年法定传染病流行特征及防治对策分析

目的：通过分析10年法定传染病疫情的流行趋势和三间分布特征,为制定传染病预防控制策略和措施提供依据。方法：采用描述性流行病学方法分析疫情趋势和三间分布情况,数据资料用SPSS10．0和Excel2003进行统计分析。结果：2001～2010年共报告乙、丙类传染病25种26129例,年均发病率386．89／10万,年均死亡率0．15／10万,10年间报告法定传染病以血源及性传播传染病和呼吸道传染病为主,居第1位的是血源及性传播传染病,共报告5种12453例,占53．03％;其次是呼吸道传染病,共报告5种9828例,占41．85％,近3年发病居于各类传染病首位;第三位的是肠道传染病,共报5种1149例,占4．89％。发病居前5位的传染为乙肝、肺结核、流行性腮腺炎、痢疾、麻疹,主要传染病以乙肝、肺结核为主,近年性传播疾病呈快速增长趋势。结论：血源及性传播传染病和呼吸道传染病是今后重点防控传染病。