International Journal of Infectious Diseases – April 2016, Volume 45, In Progress

International Journal of Infectious Diseases
April 2016 Volume 45, In Progress
http://www.ijidonline.com/current

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Editorial
Zika virus outbreak and the case for building effective and sustainable rapid diagnostics laboratory capacity globally
Alimuddin Zumla, Ian Goodfellow, Francis Kasolo, Francine Ntoumi, Philippe Buchy, Matthew Bates, Esam I Azhar, Matthew Cotten, Eskild Petersen
p92–94
Published online: March 4 2016
Preview
New and re-emerging pathogens with epidemic potential have threatened global health security for the past century.1 As with the recent Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) epidemic, the Zika Virus (ZIKV) outbreak has yet again surprised and overwhelmed the international health community with an unexpected event for which it might have been better prepared.

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Editorial
Engaging high and low burden countries in the “TB end game”
B.J. Marais, A.C. Outhred, A. Zumla
p100–102
Published online: March 19 2016
Preview
Tuberculosis (TB) is now the single biggest infectious disease killer in the world, surpassing malaria and HIV/AIDS. In 2014, there were an estimated 9.6 million incident TB cases and 1.5 million deaths.1 It is not widely appreciated that TB is also a major cause of disease and death in young children.2,3 New estimates from the World Health Organization (WHO) are that 1 million children developed TB during 2014.1 This is disconcerting because children have poor access to TB services in most resource-limited settings and paediatric cases provide an accurate reflection of uncontrolled TB transmission within communities.

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Original Reports
Safety and immunogenicity of a single dose of a quadrivalent meningococcal conjugate vaccine (MenACYW–D): a multicenter, blind-observer, randomized, phase III clinical trial in the Republic of Korea
Dong Soo Kim, Min Ja Kim, Sung-Ho Cha, Hwang Min Kim, Jong-Hyun Kim, Kwang Nam Kim, Jin-Soo Lee, Jun Yong Choi, Valérie Bosch Castells, Hee Soo Kim, Joon Bang, Philipp Oster
p59–64
Published online: February 24 2016
Preview
Meningococcal disease is caused by the Gram-negative aerobic diplococcus Neisseria meningitidis. Meningococci are classified by serogroup based on the immunochemistry of the polysaccharide capsule.1 Invasive meningococcal disease (IMD), such as meningitis and meningococcemia, is most frequently caused by serogroups A, B, C, Y, and W-135, and more recently in Africa by serogroup X.2 IMD is rapidly progressive and associated with high mortality rates of 7% to 19%.3 Approximately 10% to 20% of patients suffer from permanent disabilities such as limb loss, deafness, seizures, or psychomotor retardation.

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Original Reports
The impact of supplementary immunization activities on the epidemiology of measles in Tianjin, China
Abram L. Wagner, Ying Zhang, Bhramar Mukherjee, Yaxing Ding, Eden V. Wells, Matthew L. Boulton
p103–108
Published online: March 10 2016
Preview
Measles was officially eliminated in the Americas in 2002,1 and the other five regions of the World Health Organization (WHO) are slated for measles elimination by 2020.2 This remarkable public health success in control of a highly infectious disease has been made possible through the universal recommendation of measles vaccination. Prior to the advent of the measles vaccine, 90% of people were infected by age 20 years, resulting in 100 million cases and six million deaths worldwide each year.3 As vaccination coverage has increased, the number of deaths from measles globally has decreased: there were 631 200 deaths in 1990 and 125 400 in 2010.

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Original Reports
Epidemiological trends and characteristics of Japanese encephalitis changed based on the vaccination program between 1960 and 2013 in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, southern China
Yan Yang, Nengxiu Liang, Yi Tan, Zhichun Xie
p135–138
Published online: March 10 2016
Preview
Japanese encephalitis (JE) is a serious threat to human lives and is caused by the Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV), which belongs to the Flaviviridae family. The first major epidemic of JE occurred in 1924 in Japan.1 Since then, JE has been found increasingly in most countries of Asia, especially in the south-east areas.2 Over three billion individuals have been found in JE epidemic/endemic countries.3 According to a report by the World Health Organization, the number of cases worldwide in 2007 was 9487, including 4330 cases in China, 4017 cases in India, and 435 cases in Nepal.