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Objective: To describe the challenges of service coordination through the National Disaster Medical System (NDMS) for Hurricane Maria evacuees, particularly those on dialysis.Design: Public health report.Setting: Georgia.Report: On November 25, 2017, there were 208 patients evacuated to Georgia in response to Hurricane Maria receiving NDMS support. Most were evacuated from the US Virgin Islands (97 percent) and the remaining from Puerto Rico (3 percent); 73 percent of these patients were on dialysis, all from the US Virgin Islands. From the beginning of the evacuation response through November 25, 2017, there were 282 patients evacuated to Georgia via NDMS, with a median length of coverage through NDMS for those on and not on dialysis of 60 and 16 days, respectively. Conclusion: The limited capacity and capability of dialysis centers currently in the US Virgin Islands are delaying the return to home of many Hurricane Maria evacuees who are on dialysis.

Malaria is caused by parasites of the genus Plasmodium , which are transmitted to humans by the bites of Anopheles mosquitoes. After the elimination of Plasmodium falciparum , it is predicted that Plasmodium vivax will remain an important cause of morbidity and mortality outside Africa, stressing the importance of developing a vaccine against P. vivax malaria. In this study, we assessed the immunogenicity and protective efficacy of two P. vivax antigens, apical membrane antigen 1 (AMA1) and the 42-kDa C-terminal fragment of merozoite surface protein 1 (MSP1 42 ) in a plasmid recombinant DNA prime/adenoviral (Ad) vector boost regimen in Aotus monkeys. Groups of 4 to 5 monkeys were immunized with plasmid DNA alone, Ad alone, prime/boost regimens with each antigen, prime/boost regimens with both antigens, and empty vector controls and then subjected to blood-stage challenge. The heterologous immunization regimen with the antigen pair was more protective than either antigen alone or both antigens delivered with a single vaccine platform, on the basis of their ability to induce the longest prepatent period and the longest time to the peak level of parasitemia, the lowest peak and mean levels of parasitemia, the smallest area under the parasitemia curve, and the highest self-cure rate. Overall, prechallenge MSP1 42 antibody titers strongly correlated with a decreased parasite burden. Nevertheless, a significant proportion of immunized animals developed anemia. In conclusion, the P. vivax plasmid DNA/Ad serotype 5 vaccine encoding blood-stage parasite antigens AMA1 and MSP1 42 in a heterologous prime/boost immunization regimen provided significant protection against blood-stage challenge in Aotus monkeys, indicating the suitability of these antigens and this regimen for further development.

Objective Evaluate the user experience of a novel electronic disease reporting and analysis system deployed across the DoD global laboratory surveillance network Introduction Lessons learned from the 2009 influenza pandemic have driven many changes in the standards and practices of respiratory disease surveillance worldwide. In response to the needs for timely information sharing of emerging respiratory pathogens (1), the DoD Armed Forces Health Surveillance Center (AFHSC) collaborated with the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (JHU/APL) to develop an Internet-based data management system known as the Respiratory Disease Dashboard (RDD). The goal of the RDD is to provide the AFHSC global respiratory disease surveillance network a centralized system for the monitoring and tracking of lab-confirmed respiratory pathogens, thereby streamlining the data reporting process and enhancing the timeliness for detection of potential pandemic threats. This system consists of a password-protected internet portal that allows users to directly input respiratory specimen data and visualize data on an interactive, global map. Currently, eight DoD partner laboratories are actively entering respiratory pathogen data into the RDD, encompassing specimens from sentinel sites in eleven countries: Cambodia, Colombia, Kenya, Ecuador, Egypt, Honduras, Nicaragua, Paraguay, Peru, Uganda, and the United States. A user satisfaction survey was conducted to guide further development of the RDD and to support other disease surveillance efforts at the AFHSC. Methods User training was provided to partner laboratories during a transition of data submission from Excel spreadsheet to RDD electronic data entry between November 2011 and May 2012. A user experience survey was distributed to the participating laboratories in August 2012 and based on the experience of 139 entries. The survey adopted elements of the SWOT (Strength-Weaknesses-Opportunities-Threats) analysis to determine the system’s strengths and weaknesses as well as to solicit users’ perspectives on the efficiency of the system in assisting with disease surveillance data entry and visualization. Questionnaires in an open-ended (free-text response) format were distributed to all eight participating laboratories. Common themes were identified based on the solicited responses. Results Although only four of eight participating laboratory partners replied to the survey (50% survey response rate), all survey were completed without any omission of questions (100% completion rate). 2/25 (8%) total responses were neutral comments and therefore omitted in the thematic analysis (Table 1). In general, there was a distinct dichotomy in opinion between overseas laboratories and domestic laboratories with regard to the usefulness of the RDD, with overseas laboratories viewing the RDD as more useful than domestic laboratories. A review of the comparison between weekly specimens submitted to the AFHSC via Excel spreadsheet and data entered directly into the RDD revealed misunderstandings about the meaning of the data entry labels in the RDD interface. It was noted by four laboratories that a “Quick Start” user manual would be useful to clarify the definitions of some data labels. Conclusions Overall, this user experience evaluation has identified the needs for additional training on RDD data entry procedures and a “Quick Start” user manual to support the standardization of surveillance definitions. In general, users appreciate the visualization of the global DoD laboratory network data. This evaluation demonstrated the importance of active participation from data contributors and the invaluable organizational support in the development of the RDD as an electronic disease reporting and analysis system.

Despite the availability of effective prevention measures and a long organizational history of fighting the disease, malaria remains a threat to U.S. forces and their operations.1 These effective prevention practices and protective measures are not uniformly implemented to avert disease in the DoD. The Medical Surveillance Monthly Report documents the ever-increasing number of malaria cases acquired in Afghanistan- 91 cases in 2011 -the greatest number in the last nine years.2 Malaria consistently ranks as the most important infectious disease threat to the U.S. military3 and is a significant force health protection (FHP) issue before, during and after deployments. This stakeholder forum addressed topics of particular relevance to the DoD and force health protection, to include: primaquine chemo-prophylaxis, clinical decision support tools and knowledge management, and malaria rapid dia-gnostic tests (RDTs). The forum also included a comprehensive recap of the progress made since last year's forum, including updates of the current DoD chemoprophylaxis policy, malaria clinical practice guidelines, and current efforts to ensure PPM compliance in troops.