Communications

June 13, 2013: Content on this page kept for historical reasons.

Division of Bacterial Diseases (DBD) News Bulletin

Spring 2013

World Meningitis Day was observed on April 24, 2013. The day is organized by the Confederation of Meningitis Organizations (CoMO), which has organization and individual members in 25 countries across the Americas, Asia Pacific and Europe/Africa. Through this annual observance, CoMO encourages everyone to learn the signs and symptoms of meningitis, the importance of urgent treatment of the disease, and that prevention is available through vaccination against some forms of meningitis, as well as to get involved in local events. You can still log onto CoMO’s website to join hands against meningitis in a global virtual community. As part of World Meningitis Day, MVPDB’s Fabien Diomandé and Ryan Novak authored a blog.

World Immunization Week, which began on April 20, 2013, promoted one of the world’s most powerful tools for health—the use of vaccines to protect, or “immunize,” people of all ages against disease. Under the global slogan “Protect your world—get vaccinated,” WHO encouraged individuals and organizations working at international, regional, national, and community levels, in the public and private sectors, to coordinate and engage in activities during World Immunization Week.

New Websites: New, user-friendly websites are now available for legionellosis (Legionniares’ disease and Pontiac fever), tetanus, and diphtheria. They provide a comprehensive experience for those seeking information about these diseases.

CDC and Medscape Videos: This special series of commentaries is part of a collaboration between CDC and Medscape and is designed to deliver CDC’s authoritative guidance directly to Medscape’s physicians, nurses, pharmacists, and other healthcare professionals. In this series, experts from CDC deliver video commentaries on current topics important to practicing clinicians. NCIRD has contributed to a variety of commentaries, including a recently released commentary titled, “Protecting Patients from Deadly Pertussis: Updated Vaccine Guidelines,” featuring Tami Skoff (MVPDB). Find all of CDC’s commentaries here.

Susan Ingram, from WA’s Snohomish Health District, featured the new pertussis infographic during National Infant Immunization Week in April.

Pertussis (Whooping Cough) Infographic: Pregnant women are now recommended a Tdap shot during every pregnancy to protect them from pertussis and pass some protection to their newborns. CDC’s new infographic was developed to educate the public on the 3 best ways to protect babies from whooping cough.

Rana Hajjeh (OD) with AMP staff visiting the Azerbaijan MOH bacteriology laboratory, which serves as a national reference laboratory for invasive bacterial disease surveillance, during the ProVac mission in March.

ProVac International Initiative

Rana Hajjeh (OD) participated in a visit to Azerbaijan as part of the ProVac International Initiative, a collaboration with Agence de Médecine Préventive (AMP), based in Paris, France. ProVac was first initiated in the Pan American Health Organization region, and aims to strengthen national capacity for evidence-based decisions regarding new vaccine introduction in low- and middle-income countries, using tools for economic analysis and providing training to national, multidisciplinary teams. Azerbaijan is planning to introduce pneumococcal conjugate vaccine in July 2013, with support from the GAVI Alliance, and is interested in implementing ProVac to look at vaccine cost-effectiveness and support the immunization program in the long term.

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