Credit – The CDC’s GDDER
# 6888
I wrote at length yesterday on the Nipah virus, and the current outbreak in Bangladesh (see Bangladesh: Nipah Returns, so I’ll not bother repeating those points this morning.
What is new this morning is a report from Xinhua News indicating that three more Nipah cases (two fatal) have been reported in Bangladesh, and the arrival on Saturday of U.S. CDC Director Thomas Frieden in Dhaka to discuss their plans to assist that nation in strengthening disease surveillance.
First the report from Xinhua on the latest Nipah cases.
Virus Nipah strikes back in Bangladesh, claims 8 more lives within one week
2013-01-28 10:00:41 GMT2013-01-28 18:00:41(Beijing Time) by Naim-Ul-Karim
DHAKA, Jan. 28 (Xinhua) -- Bangladesh on Monday reported eight more deaths from infection with the deadly Nipah virus within one week as the bat-borne disease has struck early and hard.
The country's Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control & Research (IEDCR) confirmed two more deaths Sunday from the Nipah infection, tallying the toll at eight from Jan. 22.
"Outbreak of the deadly Nipah virus has claimed eight lives since January 22," Mahmudur Raman, head of the IEDCR, told Xinhua Monday.
"As of today, there are 11 cases from eight Bangladesh districts including Dhaka and eight of them died," he said, adding "Three Nipah-infected patients remain critically ill."
The Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research (IEDCR) in Bangladesh has far more to deal with than just the Nipah virus. The 150+ million inhabitants of Bangladesh are also subject to H5N1 bird flu, Dengue, Anthrax, and Chikungunya, along with many other diseases.
The United States has been providing ongoing technical, financial, and logistical support to Bangladesh for several years to assist them in upgrading their disease detection and surveillance systems. Hence the visit this past weekend by the CDC’s Director.
The news site BDNews24 has details of Director Frieden’s 2-day visit. Follow the link to read:
Bangladesh to be 'Global Disease Detection site'
Senior Correspondent, bdnews24.com
Published: 2013-01-27 14:56:52.0 Updated: 2013-01-27 18:24:00.0
The US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is strengthening its ties with Bangladesh as part of its initiative to protect the global community from the urgent public health threats.
Improving disease surveillance, detection, and prevention in those regions where emerging diseases are most apt to occur is not only the humanitarian thing to do, it also helps to keep the world from being blind-sided by emerging infectious disease threats.
We’ve far too many `blind spots’ around the world where a novel virus could emerge, and take hold in the population, before it could be identified and (hopefully) contained.
To counter that threat, the CDC has developed a Global Disease Detection and Response division (GDDER).
Global Health - Global Disease Detection and Emergency Response
The Division of Global Disease Detection and Emergency Response (GDDER) protects Americans and the global community from urgent public health threats and provides public health relief for humanitarian emergencies. Activities include:
- Detecting and containing emerging health threats
- Deploying CDC experts 24 hours a day, 7 days a week at host country requests for technical assistance and other support
- Building capacity by providing technical assistance in support of International Health Regulations (IHR)
- Promoting policies for public health and bio-security
- Improving the health of populations affected by complex humanitarian emergencies.
According to the GDDER website, nations are selected by the following criteria:
- Public health significance: The country has a high population density or history of infectious diseases or expected potential for emerging diseases;
- Country commitment: The country supports and values partnership with CDC and will actively engage in collaborative activities and identify new partners;
- Established CDC presence: The country has an established, effective working relationship with CDC and supports CDC staff in-country;
- Established regional reach: The country has the infrastructure and regional stature to serve as regional resource, or is already acting as a regional leader in other arenas;
- International partner presence: The country has other U.S. Government agencies and international partners operating in-country.
The GDDER is a program that will hopefully not only help alert us of an emerging infectious disease threat, but that may also provide a chance to stop it in its tracks before it can spread.
While there are no guarantees of success, this is a public health advantage that previous generations could only have dreamed of.
