Infectious Diseases and the Public Health Response

Below is a sample of the many resources you’ll find in the NASW Research Library on immigration and citizenship.

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Example Resources

Public health response to large influx of asylum seekers: Implementation and timing of infectious disease screening

Authors: Tiittala, Paula; Tuomisto, Karolina; Puumalainen, Taneli; Lyytikäinen, Outi; Ollgren, Jukka; Snellman, Olli; Helve, Otto
Source: BMC Public Health, September 2018, Vol. 18 Issue 1, p1-10.

Infectious disease screening of migrants at increased risk is a feature of national infection prevention and control measures. Asylum seekers in Finland are offered screening of tuberculosis (TB), hepatitis B, human immunodeficiency virus infection (HIV) and syphilis based on individual risk assessment. We aimed to evaluate the public health response to a large influx of asylum seekers to Finland in 2015–2016 with respect to national guidelines on initial health services and infectious disease screening.

Unraveling R0: Considerations for public health applications

Authors: Ridenhour, Benjamin; Kowalik, Jessica M.; Shay, David K.
Source: American Journal of Public Health. December 2018, Vol. 108 Supplement 6, pS445-S454.

The authors assessed public health use of R0, the basic reproduction number, which estimates the speed at which a disease is capable of spreading in a population. These estimates are of great public health interest, as evidenced during the 2009 influenza A (H1N1) virus pandemic. They reviewed methods commonly used to estimate R0, examined their practical utility, and assessed how estimates of this epidemiological parameter can inform mitigation strategy decisions.

Best practice assessment of disease modelling for infectious disease outbreaks

Authors: Dembek, Z. F.; Chekol, T.; Wu, A.
Source: Epidemiology & Infection. July 2018, Vol. 146 Issue 10, p1207-1215.

The authors reviewed epidemiological models created for diseases which are of greatest concern for public health protection. Such diseases, whether transmitted from person-to-person (Ebola, influenza, smallpox), via direct exposure (anthrax), or food and waterborne exposure (cholera, typhoid) may cause severe illness and death in a large population. They examined disease-specific models to determine best practices characterising infectious disease outbreaks and facilitating emergency response and implementation of public health policy and disease control measures.

Public preferences for interventions to prevent emerging infectious disease threats: A discrete choice experiment

Authors: Cook, Alex R.; Xiahong Zhao; Chen, Mark I. C.; Finkelstein, Eric A.
Source: BMJ Open, February 2018, Vol. 8 Issue 2, p1-12.

In this paper, the authors aimed to understand public perceptions on pandemic interventions, as well as to identify if there are any distinct respondent preference classes.

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