Bioterrorism is terrorism involving the intentional release or dissemination of biological agents. These agents include bacteria, viruses, insects, fungi, and/or their toxins, and may be in a naturally occurring or a human-modified form, in much the same way as in biological warfare. Further, modern agribusiness is vulnerable to anti-agricultural attacks by terrorists, and such attacks can seriously damage economy as well as consumer confidence. The latter destructive activity is called agrobioterrorism and is a subtype of agro-terrorism.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is the national public health agency of the United States. It is a United States federal agency under the Department of Health and Human Services, and is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia.
Biodefense refers to measures to counter biological threats, reduce biological risks, and prepare for, respond to, and recover from bioincidents, whether naturally occurring, accidental, or deliberate in origin and whether impacting human, animal, plant, or environmental health. Biodefense measures often aim to improve biosecurity or biosafety. Biodefense is frequently discussed in the context of biological warfare or bioterrorism, and is generally considered a military or emergency response term.
The Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists (CSTE) is a 501(c)(6) non-profit organization originally organized in 1955, founded in 1992, and based in Atlanta, Georgia. CSTE works to advance public health policy and workforce capacity for applied public health epidemiologists in all localities, states, and territories in the United States.
Public health surveillance is, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), "the continuous, systematic collection, analysis and interpretation of health-related data needed for the planning, implementation, and evaluation of public health practice." Public health surveillance may be used to track emerging health-related issues at an early stage and find active solutions in a timely manner. Surveillance systems are generally called upon to provide information regarding when and where health problems are occurring and who is affected.
Public health informatics has been defined as the systematic application of information and computer science and technology to public health practice, research, and learning. It is one of the subdomains of health informatics.
Disease surveillance is an epidemiological practice by which the spread of disease is monitored in order to establish patterns of progression. The main role of disease surveillance is to predict, observe, and minimize the harm caused by outbreak, epidemic, and pandemic situations, as well as increase knowledge about which factors contribute to such circumstances. A key part of modern disease surveillance is the practice of disease case reporting.
The Association of Public Health Laboratories (APHL) is a membership organization in the United States representing the laboratories that protect the health and safety of the public. APHL serves as a liaison between public health laboratories and federal and international agencies. Membership consists of local, state, county, and territorial public health laboratories; public health environmental, agricultural and veterinary laboratories; and corporations and individuals with an interest in public health and laboratory science. APHL is a non-profit, 501(c)(3) organization with a history of over fifty years.
The Public Health Information Network (PHIN) is a US national initiative, developed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), for advancing fully capable and interoperable information systems in public health organizations. The initiative involves establishing and implementing a framework for public health information systems.
Autonomous Detection Systems (ADS), also called biohazard detection systems or autonomous pathogen detection systems, are designed to monitor air or water in an environment and to detect the presence of airborne or waterborne chemicals, toxins, pathogens, or other biological agents capable of causing human illness or death. These systems monitor air or water continuously and send real-time alerts to appropriate authorities in the event of an act of bioterrorism or biological warfare.
Essence is an abbreviation/acronym for the United States Department of Defense's Electronic Surveillance System for the Early Notification of Community-based Epidemics. Essence's goal is to monitor health data as it becomes available and discover epidemics and similar health concerns before they get out of control. The program was created and developed in 1999 by Michael Lewis, when he was a resident in the Preventive Medicine residency training program at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research in Silver Spring, Maryland.
Sentinel Event Notification System for Occupational Risks (SENSOR)-Pesticides is a U.S. state-based surveillance program that monitors pesticide-related illness and injury. It is administered by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), twelve state health agencies participate. NIOSH provides technical support to all participating states. It also provides funding to some states, in conjunction with the US Environmental Protection Agency.
The National Outbreak Reporting System (NORS) is an electronic, web-accessible system designed to improve the quality, quantity, and availability of data for waterborne, foodborne person-to-person zoonotic (animal-to-person) enteric disease outbreaks in the United States.
The Waterborne Disease and Outbreak Surveillance System (WBDOSS) is a national surveillance system maintained by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The WBDOSS receives data about waterborne disease outbreaks and single cases of waterborne diseases of public health importance in the United States and then disseminates information about these diseases, outbreaks, and their causes. WBDOSS was initiated in 1971 by CDC, the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists (CSTE), and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Data are reported by public health departments in individual states, territories, and the Freely Associated States. Although initially designed to collect data about drinking water outbreaks in the United States, WBDOSS now includes outbreaks associated with recreational water, as well as outbreaks associated with water that is not intended for drinking (non-recreational) and water for which the intended use is unknown.
Ali S. Khan is an American practicing physician and former Director of the Office of Public Health Preparedness and Response (PHPR) at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Since July 2014, he has served as Dean of the College of Public Health and Retired Assistant Surgeon General at the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha, Nebraska.
The International Society for Disease Surveillance (ISDS) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, based in Boston, Massachusetts, dedicated to the improvement of public health by advancing the science and practice of disease surveillance. ISDS facilitates interdisciplinary collaboration, promotes and conducts research, education, and advocacy. ISDS's 400+ membership represents professional and academic subject matter experts in the fields of public health surveillance, clinical practice, health informatics, health policy, and other areas related to national and global health surveillance. ISDS holds an annual national conference for the public health surveillance community. The ISDS is a member society of the Global Health Workforce Alliance founded in 2006.
The United States National Biosurveillance Strategy is the plan to implement a biosurveillance system that will monitor and interpret data that might relate to disease activity and threats to human or animal health – whether infectious, toxic, metabolic, and regardless of intentional or natural origin – in order to achieve early warning of health threats, early detection of health events and overall situational awareness of disease activity.
The Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme (IDSP) is a nationwide disease surveillance system in India incorporating both the state and central governments aimed at early detection and long term monitoring of diseases for enabling efficient policy decisions. It was started in 2004 with the assistance of the World Bank. A central surveillance unit has been set up at the National Centre for Disease Control in Delhi. All states, union territories, and district headquarters of India have established surveillance units. Weekly data is submitted from over 90% of the 741 districts in the country. With the aim of improving digital surveillance capabilities, the Integrated Health Information Platform (IHIP) was launched in a number of states in November 2019.
Kelly J. Henning is an epidemiologist and medical doctor currently leading the public health program of Bloomberg Philanthropies. She has led the program since it began in 2007. She was the first person to serve as director of epidemiology for the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. Henning said of working in public health "I have the opportunity to help improve the health and lives of millions of people. That's what really speaks to me."
Vaping-associated pulmonary injury (VAPI), also known as vaping-associated lung injury (VALI) or e-cigarette, or vaping, product use associated lung injury (E/VALI), is an umbrella term, used to describe lung diseases associated with the use of vaping products that can be severe and life-threatening. Symptoms can initially mimic common pulmonary diagnoses, such as pneumonia, but sufferers typically do not respond to antibiotic therapy. Differential diagnoses have overlapping features with VAPI, including COVID-19. According to a systematic review article, "Initial case reports of vaping-related lung injury date back to 2012, but the ongoing outbreak of EVALI began in the summer of 2019." According to an article in the Radiological Society of North America news published in March 2022, EVALI cases continue to be diagnosed. “EVALI has by no means disappeared,” Dr. Kligerman said. “We continue to see numerous cases, even during the pandemic, many of which are initially misdiagnosed as COVID-19.”
