REFUGEE ORAL HEALTH: Interim Federal Health Plan Coverage Examples from Manitoba and Saskatchewan
Canada is one of the leading welcoming countries for refugees around the world. NCCID is hosting a series of podcasts and webinars for public health audiences to help provide the information they need about refugee health. In this presentation, our two presenters delved into refugee oral health, both in children and adults. Content covered key findings from Manitoba and Saskatchewan, including the oral health needs of immigrants and refugees in Winnipeg and the coverage offered by IFHP (Interim Federal Health Program), and a large scale refugee oral health program offered by the University of Saskatchewan.
For an archived version of this webinar, contact NCCID Project Manager Zeeshan Qadar at qadarsmz@umanitoba.ca.
NCCID Resource
SUMMARY: Screening and Vaccination Guide
for Refugee and Immigrant Health
NCCID offers this summary of the screening and vaccination guidelines for immigrant and refugee health from the Canadian Medical Association Journal.
LINKS //PUBLIC HEALTH + INFECTIOUS DISEASES
TOOLKIT 'Developing a Water Management Program to Reduce Legionella Growth and Spread in Buildings'
From the CDC: "Legionella, the bacterium that causes a type of serious lung infection known as Legionnaires’ disease, grows best in building water systems that are not well maintained. ... This toolkit is designed to help people understand which buildings and devices need a Legionella water management program to reduce the risk for Legionnaires’ disease, what makes a good program, and how to develop it."
RESOURCE Health News Review
HealthNewsReview.org offers a critical analysis of "claims about health care interventions [and] evaluates health care journalism, advertising, marketing, public relations and other messages." That analysis often includes infectious diseases, such as this review of a university news release regarding a study on the effectiveness of two different types of flu vaccine, and another release that reports on researchers producing the "first widely protective vaccine against chlamydia." In both cases, HNR identifies key pieces of missing information and context, and why it matters.
OPINION 'Vaccinology in the twenty-first century'
Editorial from Nature.com: "[I]n general, society does not understand the ongoing need to continue developing new vaccines, or the necessity of providing resources for the research and development required for those additional vaccines. This situation is made even more difficult by society’s expectations that a vaccine must be 100% effective, 150% safe and cost US$1 (or less for veterinary vaccines) ... Vaccine implementation has become an increasingly important area such that we should probably not think in terms of the ‘vaccine research and development pathway’ but the ‘vaccine research, development and implementation pathway.’
STUDY 'Insights into Population Health Management Through Disease Diagnoses Networks'
From Nature's Scientific Reports: "The increasing availability of electronic health care records has provided remarkable progress in the field of population health. In particular, the identification of disease risk factors ... However, to date, the majority of studies approached the issue from the top down, focusing on the prevalence of specific diseases within a population. Through our work, we demonstrate the power of addressing this issue bottom-up by identifying specifically which diseases are higher-risk for a specific population [and how] network-based analysis can present a foundation to identify pairs of diagnoses that differentiate across population segments. ... This work is particularly valuable when addressing population health management within resource-constrained environments..."
ARTICLE India rolls out world's first leprosy vaccine as fight goes on 'war footing'
FromThe Guardian: "For all the fear it conjures, leprosy, caused by the pathogen Mycobacterium leprae, has been effectively treatable since the 1940s. It isn’t particularly contagious either... 'The real problem is the level of stigma,' says Dr Sunil Anand, the executive director of the Leprosy Mission. “Those who get leprosy tend to be ostracised and stigmatised by the community, they tend to hide away.' ... Battling high rates, health officials are also racing against time: leprosy strains are slowly becoming resistant to the multi-drug therapy that so successfully brought the Indian infection rate crashing down."
NEW FROM NCCID
PODCAST 'Infectious Questions,' Ep. 4
This episode of Infectious Questions addresses a question about amniocentesis for pregnant women who've recently travelled to Zika endemic areas. Our guest expert is Dr. Vanessa Poliquin, an obstetrician, gynecologist and reproductive infectious diseases specialist at the University of Manitoba. [apx. 9 min. | Transcript ]
RESOURCES Public Health Quick Links: Zika Virus
Global attention to Zika virus continues with new information and developments nearly every week. NCCID has assembled new links to key leaders and sources in infectious diseases prevention, control and knowledge for public health in Canada.
LITERATURE REVIEW A Short Review of Literature on the Effects of Climate Change on Mosquito-Borne Illnesses in Canada
Climate change has been predicted to have a significant impact on the distribution of vector-borne diseases (VBDs) and thus introduce new challenges to public health in Canada. NCCID seeks to respond to the growing need of public health practitioners with new information on climate change trends and emergence of VBDs that threaten the health of Canadians.
AROUND THE WEB
RESOURCES Zika Collection Evidence Aid
A new collection of systematic reviews related to Zika, introduced for Evidence Aid by Laura Rodrigues, professor of Infectious Disease Epidemiology and Population Health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
ARTICLE 'Mosquito species that can transmit Zika found in Windsor-Essex'
"The Windsor-Essex County Health Unit has captured a mosquito species that has the potential to transmit the Zika virus to humans," reported the Windsor Star on October 6, 2016. Read the WECHU news release.
ARTICLE 'Children Who Get Zika After Birth Tend Not to Fall Seriously Ill, Study Finds'
From the New York Times: "Serious complications are rare among children infected with the Zika virus after birth, federal health researchers concluded ... About 160 teenagers and toddlers infected with Zika virus have been reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention since 2015. The agency’s new study marks the largest survey yet of laboratory-confirmed cases in children."
This edition of the Alert has been compiled by Harpa Isfeld-Kiely, who manages NCCID projects in AMR/AMS, a quickly growing area of work for the Centre.
Here are three things I'm reading on topics of AMR surveillance, evidence-informed program planning, and inspired ‘One Health approach’ resources.
—Harpa
WEBSITE Minnesota One Health Antibiotic Stewardship Collaborative
The Minnesota Department of Health website features a One Health approach to AMR—a strategy that some Canadian public health leaders look to with interest. The Department introduces its approach, as follows: “Antibiotic stewardship consists of coordinated interventions that promote judicious antibiotic use and reduce the impact of antibiotic resistant pathogens. A One Health approach recognizes that human, agricultural and companion animal, and environmental health are interconnected, and issues such as antibiotic stewardship require a collaborative effort across multiple disciplines. We believe that a One Health approach will create an informed public and professionals that can communicate, and practice a more holistic approach to antibiotic stewardship.” The website exemplifies the Department's recently developed, broad strategy to combat AMR, and serves as a gateway to an impressive collection of resources tailored to the information needs of human health and animal health care providers, the general public, agricultural producers, and environmental scientists.
GUIDELINES Implementing an Antibiotic Stewardship Program: Guidelines by the Infectious Diseases Society of America and the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America
A US-based expert panel put forward recommendations for particular antimicrobial stewardship interventions, based on assessments of the weight of available evidence. Evidence-based guidelines for implementation and measurement of antibiotic stewardship interventions in inpatient populations including long-term care were prepared by a multidisciplinary expert panel of the Infectious Diseases Society of America and the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America. The panel included clinicians and investigators representing internal medicine, emergency medicine, microbiology, critical care, surgery, epidemiology, pharmacy, and adult and pediatric infectious diseases specialties. These recommendations address the best approaches for antibiotic stewardship programs to influence the optimal use of antibiotics.
REPORT Canadian Antimicrobial Resistance Surveillance System Report 2016
Production of this newsletter has been made possible through a financial contribution from PHAC. The views expressed herein do not necessarily represent the views of PHAC.
