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Abstract Severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome (SFTS), a tick-borne disease caused by Dabie bandavirus (SFTSV) is an emerging infectious disease of substantial concern in East Asia. In 2019, Ongkittikul S et al. reported the first case of SFTS in Thailand. Our report describes a One Health investigation of SFTS zoonosis examining the index case and suspected animal reservoirs using real-time RT-PCR and immunoassays. We add to the report on the first confirmed case of SFTSV infection in a human in Thailand by conducting a limited but informative One Health surveillance study. Dogs and cats tested positive for SFTSV antibody using IgG ELISA. We conclude that domestic dogs and cats might serve as potential reservoirs for SFTSV spread due to their closer proximity to the index case than other non-domestic animals. Notably, we did not detect SFTSV in synanthropic cats or dogs—nor did we detect SFTSV in Rhipicephalus sanguineus ticks—using RT-PCR. We propose that One Health investigations coupling genomic and serologic assays in response to new SFTS cases could play a pivotal role in preventing and managing SFTS among humans and animals in East Asia. As such, we are establishing a collaborative response to SFTS in Thailand through human outbreak investigations that align with principles of One Health, through environmental surveys and animal RT-PCR and immunoassays. Our investigation highlights the importance of coupling RT-PCR with seroprevalence assays as principal elements of One Health surveillance for SFTS in order to shed light on potential animal reservoirs and track emerging zoonosis.

Abstract Background To tackle noncommunicable disease (NCD) burden globally, two sets of NCD surveillance indicators were established by the World Health Organization: 25 Global Monitoring Framework (GMF) indicators and 10 Progress Monitoring Indicators (PMI). This study aims to assess the data availability of these two sets of indicators in six ASEAN countries: Cambodia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, Thailand, and Vietnam. Methods As data on policy indicators were straightforward and fully available, we focused on studying 25 non-policy indicators: 23 GMFs and 2 PMIs. Gathering data availability of the target indicators was conducted among NCD surveillance experts from the six selected countries during May-June 2020. Our research team found information regarding whether the country had no data at all, was using WHO estimates, was providing ‘expert judgement’ for the data, or had actual data available for each target indicator. We triangulated their answers with several WHO data sources, including the WHO Health Observatory Database and various WHO Global Reports on health behaviours (tobacco, alcohol, diet, and physical activity) and NCDs. We calculated the percentages of the indicators that need improvement by both indicator category and country. Results For all six studied countries, the health-service indicators, based on responses to the facility survey, are the most lacking in data availability (100% of this category’s indicators), followed by the health-service indicators, based on the population survey responses (57%), the mortality and morbidity indicators (50%), the behavioural risk indicators (30%), and the biological risk indicators (7%). The countries that need to improve their NCD surveillance data availability the most are Cambodia (56% of all indicators) and Lao PDR (56%), followed by Malaysia (36%), Vietnam (36%), Myanmar (32%), and Thailand (28%). Conclusion Some of the non-policy GMF and PMI indicators lacked data among the six studied countries. To achieve the global NCDs targets, in the long run, the six countries should collect their own data for all indicators and begin to invest in and implement the facility survey and the population survey to track NCDs-related health services improvements once they have implemented the behavioural and biological Health Risks Population Survey in their countries.

Severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome (SFTS), a tick-borne disease caused by Dabie bandavirus (SFTSV) is an emerging infectious disease of substantial concern in East Asia. In 2019, Ongkittikul S et al. reported the first case of SFTS in Thailand. Our report describes a One Health investigation of SFTS zoonosis examining the index case and suspected animal reservoirs using real-time RT-PCR and immunoassays. We add to the report on the first confirmed case of SFTSV infection in a human in Thailand by conducting a limited but informative One Health surveillance study. Dogs and cats tested positive for SFTSV antibody using IgG ELISA. We conclude that domestic dogs and cats might serve as potential reservoirs for SFTSV spread due to their closer proximity to the index case than other non-domestic animals. Notably, we did not detect SFTSV in synanthropic cats or dogs—nor did we detect SFTSV in Rhipicephalus sanguineus ticks—using RT-PCR. We propose that One Health investigations coupling genomic and serologic assays in response to new SFTS cases could play a pivotal role in preventing and managing SFTS among humans and animals in East Asia. As such, we are establishing a collaborative response to SFTS in Thailand through human outbreak investigations that align with principles of One Health, through environmental surveys and animal RT-PCR and immunoassays. Our investigation highlights the importance of coupling RT-PCR with seroprevalence assays as principal elements of One Health surveillance for SFTS in order to shed light on potential animal reservoirs and track emerging zoonosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: To tackle noncommunicable disease (NCD) burden globally, two sets of NCD surveillance indicators were established by the World Health Organization: 25 Global Monitoring Framework (GMF) indicators and 10 Progress Monitoring Indicators (PMI). This study aims to assess the data availability of these two sets of indicators in six ASEAN countries: Cambodia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, Thailand, and Vietnam. Methods: As data on policy indicators were straightforward and fully available, we focused on studying 25 non-policy indicators: 23 GMFs and 2 PMIs. Gathering data availability of the target indicators was conducted among NCD surveillance experts from the six selected countries during May-June 2020. Our research team found information regarding whether the country had no data at all, was using WHO estimates, was providing 'expert judgement' for the data, or had actual data available for each target indicator. We triangulated their answers with several WHO data sources, including the WHO Health Observatory Database and various WHO Global Reports on health behaviours (tobacco, alcohol, diet, and physical activity) and NCDs. We calculated the percentages of the indicators that need improvement by both indicator category and country. Results: For all six studied countries, the health-service indicators, based on responses to the facility survey, are the most lacking in data availability (100% of this category's indicators), followed by the health-service indicators, based on the population survey responses (57%), the mortality and morbidity indicators (50%), the behavioural risk indicators (30%), and the biological risk indicators (7%). The countries that need to improve their NCD surveillance data availability the most are Cambodia (56% of all indicators) and Lao PDR (56%), followed by Malaysia (36%), Vietnam (36%), Myanmar (32%), and Thailand (28%). Conclusion: Some of the non-policy GMF and PMI indicators lacked data among the six studied countries. To achieve the global NCDs targets, in the long run, the six countries should collect their own data for all indicators and begin to invest in and implement the facility survey and the population survey to track NCDs-related health services improvements once they have implemented the behavioural and biological Health Risks Population Survey in their countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]