Recent emergence and outbreak of rotavirus gastroenteritis in Samoa:A scoping review of risk factors,containment measures and public health preparedness

Diarrheal diseases have been known to cause death in many children below the age of five years,and rotavirus infection represents a major health problem in the world today,particularly in developing countries.The recent outbreak of rotavirus gastroenteritis in Samoa led to the introduction of her debut national immunization program on rotavirus vaccination for infants.Despite the introduction of anti-viral and anti-emetic drugs as of the containment approaches towards the virus,risk factors,preventive measures and public health preparedness against rotavirus infection are poorly understood in Samoa.This review aims to use available evidence on rotavirus literature to elucidate and map preventive strategies for the recently emerged rotavirus infections in Samoa.We conducted a search strategy using online medical literature databases and retrieval systems.A designated set of keywords such as rotavirus,gastroenteritis,outbreak,risk factors,containment measures,vaccination and Samoa were inserted in electronic databases to retrieve articles.The databases included Pub Med,Google Scholar,MEDLINE,Scinapse,and EBSCO host.Findings from this review addressed the impact of rotavirus infection,associated threats and other preventive measures.Introducing useful health frameworks in pursuing possible methods such as improved water quality,exclusive breast feeding,improved laboratory diagnostics and outbreak surveillance,may be essential in addressing alternate approaches towards containment of the disease in Samoa and other Pacific Island Countries and Territories.

Effects of policies and containment measures on control of COVID- 19 epidemic in Chongqing

BACKGROUND Coronavirus disease 2019(COVID-19)is an emerging,rapidly evolving disease that spreads through the respiratory system and is highly contagious.In March 2020,the World Health Organization declared the COVID-19 outbreak a pandemic.In China,the pandemic was controlled after 2 mo through effective policies and containment measures.Describing the detailed policies and containment measures used to control the epidemic in Chongqing will provide a reference for the prevention and control of COVID-19 in other areas of the world.AIM To explore the effects of different policies and containment measures on the control of the COVID-19 epidemic in Chongqing.METHODS Epidemiological data on COVID-19 in Chongqing were prospectively collected from January 21 to March 15,2020.The policies and prevention measures implemented by the government during the epidemic period were also collected.Trend analysis was performed to explore the impact of the main policy measures on the effectiveness of the control of COVID-19 in Chongqing.As of March 15,the cumulative incidence of COVID-19 in Chongqing was 1.84/100000(576 cases)and the infection fatality rate was 1.04%(6/576).The spread of COVID-19 was controlled by effective policies that involved establishing a group for directing the COVID-19 epidemic control effort;strengthening guidance and supervision;ensuring the supply of daily necessities and medical supplies and equipment to residents;setting up designated hospitals;implementing legal measures;and enhancing health education.Medical techniques were implemented to improve the recovery rate and control the epidemic.Policies such as“the lockdown of Wuhan”,“initiating a first-level response to major public health emergencies”,and“implementing the closed management of residential communities”significantly curbed the spread of COVID-19.Optimizing the diagnosis process,shortening the diagnosis time,and constructing teams of clinical experts facilitated the provision of“one team of medical experts for each patient”treatment for severe patients,which significantly improved the recovery rate and reduced the infection fatality rate.CONCLUSION The prevention policies and containment measures implemented by the government and medical institutions are highly effective in controlling the spread of the epidemic and increasing the recovery rate of COVID-19 patients.

Containment measures for emerging and re-emerging vector-borne and other infectious diseases of poverty in urban settings:a scoping review

Background:The emergence and re-emergence of vector-borne and other infectious diseases of poverty pose a threat to the health of populations living in urban and low-income settings.A detailed understanding of intervention strategies,including effectiveness of past outbreak containment,is necessary to improve future practices.The objective was to determine what is known about the effectiveness of containment measures for emerging and re-emerging vector-borne and other infectious diseases of poverty in urban settings and identify research gaps and implications for public health practice.Main body:We conducted a scoping review and systematically searched peer-reviewed and grey literature published between 2000 and 2016.Different data extraction tools were used for data coding and extraction,and data on implementation process and transferability were extracted from all studies.A quality assessment was conducted for each included study.We screened 205 full-text articles and reports for a total of 31 articles included in the review.The quality of the studies was generally low to moderate.The largest body of evidence concerned control activities for Ebola virus and dengue fever.The majority of interventions(87%)relied on multiple types of measures,which were grouped into four categories:1)healthcare provision;2)epidemiological investigation and/or surveillance;3)environmental or sanitary interventions;and 4)community-based interventions.The quality of the majority of studies(90%)was poor or moderate,and one-third of the studies did not provide a clear description of the outcomes and of the procedures and/or tools used for the intervention.Conclusions:Our results highlight the difficulty of establishing causation when assessing the effect of containment measures.Studies that extend beyond solely reporting on effectiveness and take into account the complexity of real-world settings are urgently needed.We recommend the allocation of research efforts to the evaluation of the implementation processes of interventions as well as their comprehensive and systematic description using validated checklists.

Translative containment measure and symmetric mixed isohomothetic inequalities

We first investigate the translative containment measure for convex domain K0 to contain, or to be contained in, the homothetic copy of another convex domain K1, i.e., given two convex domains K0, K1 of areas A0, A1, respectively, in the Euclidean plane R2, is there a translation T so that t(T K1) K0 or t(T K1) ? K0 for t > 0? Via the translative kinematic formulas of Poincar′e and Blaschke in integral geometry,we estimate the symmetric mixed isohomothetic deficit σ2(K0, K1) ≡ A201- A0A1, where A01 is the mixed area of K0 and K1. We obtain a sufficient condition for K0 to contain, or to be contained in, t(T K1). We obtain some Bonnesen-style symmetric mixed isohomothetic inequalities and reverse Bonnesen-style symmetric mixed isohomothetic inequalities. These symmetric mixed isohomothetic inequalities obtained are known as Bonnesen-style isopermetric inequalities and reverse Bonnesen-style isopermetric inequalities if one of domains is a disc. As direct consequences, we obtain some inequalities that strengthen the known Minkowski inequality for mixed areas and the Bonnesen-Blaschke-Flanders inequality.

Reverse Bonnesen style inequalities in a surface X_∈~2 of constant curvature

We investigate the isoperimetric deficit upper bound, that is, the reverse Bonnesen style inequality for the convex domain in a surface X2 of constant curvature ε via the containment measure of a convex domain to contain another convex domain in integral geometry. We obtain some reverse Bonnesen style inequalities that extend the known Bottema＇s result in the Euclidean plane E2.