Last data update: May 13, 2024. (Total: 46773 publications since 2009)
Records 1-6 (of 6 Records) |
Query Trace: Khabbaz R[original query] |
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Integrating advanced molecular technologies into public health.
Gwinn M , MacCannell DR , Khabbaz RF . J Clin Microbiol 2016 55 (3) 703-714 Advances in laboratory and information technologies are transforming public health microbiology. High-throughput genome sequencing and bioinformatics are enhancing our ability to investigate and control outbreaks, detect emerging infectious diseases, develop vaccines, and combat antimicrobial resistance-all with increased accuracy, timeliness, and efficiency. The Advanced Molecular Detection (AMD) initiative has allowed the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to provide leadership and coordination in integrating new technologies into routine practice throughout the US public health laboratory system. Collaboration and partnerships are the key to navigating this transition and to leveraging the next generation of methods and tools most effectively for public health. |
Challenges of infectious diseases in the USA
Khabbaz RF , Moseley RR , Steiner RJ , Levitt AM , Bell BP . Lancet 2014 384 (9937) 53-63 In the USA, infectious diseases continue to exact a substantial toll on health and health-care resources. Endemic diseases such as chronic hepatitis, HIV, and other sexually transmitted infections affect millions of individuals and widen health disparities. Additional concerns include health-care-associated and foodborne infections-both of which have been targets of broad prevention efforts, with success in some areas, yet major challenges remain. Although substantial progress in reduction of the burden of vaccine-preventable diseases has been made, continued cases and outbreaks of these diseases persist, driven by various contributing factors. Worldwide, emerging and reemerging infections continue to challenge prevention and control strategies while the growing problem of antimicrobial resistance needs urgent action. An important priority for control of infectious disease is to ensure that scientific and technological advances in molecular diagnostics and bioinformatics are well integrated into public health. Broad and diverse partnerships across governments, health care, academia, and industry, and with the public, are essential to effectively reduce the burden of infectious diseases. |
Still learning from SARS
Khabbaz RF . Ann Intern Med 2013 159 (11) 780-1 Eleven years ago, a novel coronavirus sparked the first major global outbreak of an emerging infectious disease of the 21st century (1). Branded “SARS” for “severe acute respiratory syndrome,” the new illness quickly engulfed the world's medical, scientific, and public health communities and garnered a worried public's attention. Since then and to date, the global reach of SARS has only been matched by the 2009 H1N1 influenza pandemic (2), but its societal effect remains unsurpassed. SARS endures as a vivid reminder of the capacity of emerging infectious diseases to quickly travel the globe, exacting a major human toll of illness and death and causing significant economic, political, and social consequences. More recently, the emergence of another novel coronavirus causing severe respiratory illness (termed “Middle East respiratory syndrome”) in the Middle East and Europe (3) and a novel avian influenza A (H7N9) virus in China (4) continues to demonstrate the ongoing threat of emerging infections. With illness, death, and spread reminiscent of SARS, Middle East respiratory syndrome is particularly alarming. From September 2012 through October 2013, more than 140 cases and 60 deaths have been reported among persons with direct or indirect linkages to areas of the Middle East. Although not sustained, person-to-person transmissions have been documented, including transmissions in health care settings. Genetic analysis shows a close relationship between the Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus and coronaviruses in bats, suggesting once again a zoonotic origin of this latest emerging infection. Cases of H7N9 also present specific concerns because they represent the first known human cases of this virus. Since early 2013, more than 135 cases and 45 deaths have occurred in China, including Taiwan—mostly among persons who had contact with infected poultry or contaminated environments. Although no sustained spread has been found and reports of new cases remain sparse, concerns for the pandemic potential of an H7N9 virus persist. |
Institutionalizing public health department accreditation through CDC opportunities
Monroe J , Collins J , Ikeda R , Khabbaz R . J Public Health Manag Pract 2014 20 (1) 141-4 This commentary discusses institutionalizing public health department accreditation through CDC opportunities. To realize these opportunities, it requires the engagement of national, state, and local partners. | Everybody doing his best is not the answer. It is first necessary that people know what to do. | W. Edwards Deming | The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) mission is to help create the expertise, information, and tools that people and communities need to protect their health—through health promotion; prevention of disease, injury, and disability; and preparedness to promptly address new health threats. It has a long-standing partnership with state, tribal, local, and territorial health departments to help accomplish and further the public health mission. States and localities have the legal responsibility for public health and serve on the front lines as the first to recognize and respond to health threats. The federal government, on the contrary, has resources, expertise, and the responsibility to assess the health of the nation and make recommendations for improvement.1 Given the diversity in size, structure, and activities in health departments, developing standards for governmental public health practice has been a long-standing challenge. Fortunately, the collaborative work necessary to establish accreditation through the Public Health Accreditation Board (PHAB) has forged a national consensus on standards for public health departments. |
Responding to the outbreak of invasive fungal infections: the value of public health to Americans
Bell BP , Khabbaz RF . JAMA 2013 309 (9) 883-4 The outbreak of invasive fungal infections among patients who received injections of contaminated methylprednisolone acetate prepared by the New England Compounding Center (in Framingham, Massachusetts) is a disturbing tragedy, already the largest health care–associated fungal outbreak reported in the United States, with 693 cases and 45 deaths reported as of January 28, 2013.1 Effectively responding to this catastrophic event required rapid actions by clinical and public health practitioners who worked to ensure discontinued use of the suspect medication, notify at-risk patients and their physicians, and decipher the many unknowns about the outbreak to provide the best guidance for minimizing harm. | In the United States, public health is a distributed system, with critical responsibilities at local, state, and federal levels. The fungal infections outbreak underscores the pivotal detection and response roles of state health departments, working with local clinical and public health colleagues. In this outbreak, the Tennessee Department of Health (TDOH) sounded the alarm based on a telephone call from an alert clinician treating a patient with an unusual form of meningitis.2 The clinician had not only asked about a broad range of possible patient exposures, but also recognized the potential public health implications and knew to contact the health department. This well-established linkage reflects long-term efforts of the TDOH to establish partnerships and work collaboratively with clinicians, hospitals, and other health care facilities to implement measures to reduce health care–associated infections. |
Absence of evidence for bornavirus infection in schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and major depressive disorder
Hornig M , Briese T , Licinio J , Khabbaz RF , Altshuler LL , Potkin SG , Schwemmle M , Siemetzki U , Mintz J , Honkavuori K , Kraemer HC , Egan MF , Whybrow PC , Bunney WE , Lipkin WI . Mol Psychiatry 2012 17 (5) 486-93 In 1983, reports of antibodies in subjects with major depressive disorder (MDD) to an as-yet uncharacterized infectious agent associated with meningoencephalitis in horses and sheep led to molecular cloning of the genome of a novel, negative-stranded neurotropic virus, Borna disease virus (BDV). This advance has enabled the development of new diagnostic assays, including in situ hybridization, PCR and serology based on recombinant proteins. Since these assays were first implemented in 1990, more than 80 studies have reported an association between BDV and a wide range of human illnesses that include MDD, bipolar disorder (BD), schizophrenia (SZ), anxiety disorder, chronic fatigue syndrome, multiple sclerosis, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, dementia and glioblastoma multiforme. However, to date there has been no blinded case-control study of the epidemiology of BDV infection. Here, in a United States-based, multi-center, yoked case-control study with standardized methods for clinical assessment and blinded serological and molecular analysis, we report the absence of association of psychiatric illness with antibodies to BDV or with BDV nucleic acids in serially collected serum and white blood cell samples from 396 subjects, a study population comprised of 198 matched pairs of patients and healthy controls (52 SZ/control pairs, 66 BD/control pairs and 80 MDD/control pairs). Our results argue strongly against a role for BDV in the pathogenesis of these psychiatric disorders. |
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