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On December 31, 2019, a cluster of severe pneumonia cases in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China, was reported (1). On January 7, 2020, a novel coronavirus, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus [...]

Summary: This review examined the risk of cardiovascular disease in adults with metabolically healthy overweight/obesity. A systematic review and meta‐analysis using data from Medline, EMBASE, SCOPUS and Cochrane Library searched from inception up to 31st October 2019. We included prospective cohort studies of adults who are metabolically healthy or unhealthy. Outcomes were fatal and nonfatal cardiovascular events, all‐cause mortality. Pooled relative risk was calculated for each outcome in populations with metabolically healthy overweight and metabolically healthy obesity using metabolically healthy normal weight as reference. A random‐effects model was used for meta‐analysis, and risk of bias assessment tool for nonrandomized studies assessed risk of bias within each study. Twenty‐three prospective cohort studies with 4,492,723 participants were included. Cardiovascular disease risk was increased in metabolically healthy groups with overweight (RR = 1.34, CI: 1.23–1.46, n = 20, I2 = 90.3%) and obesity (RR = 1.58, CI: 1.34–1.85, n = 21, I2 = 92.2) compared with a reference group with metabolically healthy normal weight. Cardiovascular disease risk was similar irrespective of the number of risk factors used to define metabolically healthy and the risk remained in the group with no metabolic risk factors. Cardiovascular disease risk is increased in populations with overweight and obesity classified as metabolically healthy even when there were no metabolic risk factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Integrated Disease Surveillance and Response (IDSR) system was adopted by the Sierra Leone Ministry of Health (MOH) in 2008, which was based on paper-based tools for health data recording and reporting from health facilities to the national level. The Sierra Leone MoH introduced the implementation of electronic case-based disease surveillance reporting of immediately notifiable diseases. This study aimed to document and describe the experience of Sierra Leone in transforming her paper-based disease surveillance system into an electronic disease surveillance system. Retrospective mixed methods of qualitative and quantitative data were reviewed. Qualitative data was collected by reviewing surveillance technical reports, epidemiological bulletins, COVID-19, IDSR technical guidelines, Digital Health strategy, and DHIS2 documentation. Content and thematic data analysis were performed for the qualitative data, while Microsoft Excel and DHIS2 platform were used for the quantitative data analysis to document the experience of Sierra Leone in digitalizing its disease surveillance system. In early 2017, a web-based electronic Case-Based Disease Surveillance (eCBDS) for real-time reporting of immediately notifiable diseases and health threats was piloted using the District Health Information System 2 (DHIS2) software. The eCBDS, integrates case profile, laboratory, and final outcome data. All captured data and information are immediately accessible to users with the required credentials. The system can be accessed via a browser or an Android DHIS2 application. By 2021, there was a significant increase in the proportion of immediately notifiable cases reported through the facility-level electronic platform, and more than 80% of the cases reported through the weekly surveillance platform had case-based data in eCBDS. Case-based data from the platform is analyzed and disseminated to stakeholders for public health decision-making. Several outbreaks of Lassa fever, Measles, vaccine-derived Polio, and Anthrax have been tracked in real-time through the eCBDS., (© The Author(s) 2024. Published by Oxford University Press in association with The London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.)