According to some lay groups, the nation is experiencing an autism epidemic-a rapid escalation in the prevalence of autism for unknown reasons. However, no sound scientific evidence indicates that the increasing number of diagnosed cases of autism arises from anything other than purposely broadened diagnostic criteria, coupled with deliberately greater public awareness and intentionally improve...

On Friday, June 28, 2013, the Iowa Department of Public Health (IDPH) routinely reported two cases of cyclosporiasis in its weekly electronic newsletter, the EPI Update. The newsletter's primary audience consists of Iowa's public health officials and health-care providers, but readers also include members of the news media.

BACKGROUND Nearly fifteen years after the start of WHO's DOTS strategy, tuberculosis remains a major global health problem. Given the lack of empirical evidence that DOTS reduces tuberculosis burden, considerable debate has arisen about its place in the future of global tuberculosis control efforts. An independent evaluation of DOTS, one of the most widely-implemented and longest-running interv...

OBJECTIVES The study aims to show the feasibility of involvement of Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) health volunteers with regular monitoring mechanism on tuberculosis (TB) control in Sana'a City, Yemen. METHODS Interventions to mobilize NGO health volunteers with regular monitoring field visits in two selected districts with approximately 400,000 population in Sana'a City were conducted....

Using population-based data from rural Vietnam, we assessed tuberculosis (TB) transmission within and outside of households. Eighty-three percent of persons with recent household TB were infected by different strains of Mycobacterium tuberculosis than were their household members. This result argues against the effectiveness of active TB case finding among household members.

Mini-leprosy elimination campaigns (Mini-LECs) were carried out over a period of 5 years (2000-2004) in Kaduna State, Nigeria. After careful preparation, the campaign team visited areas with a high suspicion of hidden cases in 12 selected Local Government Areas (LGAs). During the years of the 12 campaigns, 156 new cases of leprosy were detected against an expected number of 70 within the same L...

Estimating the changing burden of malaria disease remains difficult owing to limitations in health reporting systems. Here, we use a transmission model incorporating acquisition and loss of immunity to capture age-specific patterns of disease at different transmission intensities. The model is fitted to age-stratified data from 23 sites in Africa, and we then produce maps and estimates of disea...

N. Šehić-Mušić, Chamber of Economy of the Federation of B&H, Š. Goletić, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, University of Zenica, D. Pihura, Bosnia Foundry Association, L. Mušić, Faculty of Political Science, University of Sarajevo, K. Hasanović, European University, Brčko District, B&H Integrating environment development, as the objective of the research in this paper, is to defi ne a model to...

OBJECTIVE To understand the characteristics of newly detected leprosy patients at low endemic situation in China in order to provide information for better leprosy control. METHODS A study was carried out using a designed questionnaire in a retrospective method in China in 2007. RESULTS Among 1462 new patients studied, the average age at diagnosis was 41.5 +/- 15.8 years. Nearly half of new...

OBJECTIVES According to the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, new active tuberculosis (TB) cases have increased since 2001. Some key factors explain and characterize the transmission dynamics of Korean TB infection, such as a higher ratio of latent individuals and a new reporting system implemented in 2001, among others. METHODS We propose a mathematical TB model that includes...