We sought to investigate the effectiveness of Fengxiao that may inform policy decisions on improving community-based interventions for management of on-going outbreaks in China, in particular during the Spring Festival in mid-February 2010 when nationwide traveling will be substantially increased.
Thus the emphasis is on on-going outbreaks, with fresh wounds, rather than on identifying a previous outbreak.
While we ensured matched control villages were included in our study as per standard experimental protocol, during the course of the trial, participants within the control villages released fish into their tanks when they discovered that the fish were responsible for controlling on-going outbreaks in the study villages.
And while Ebola brings a new focus on the importance of handwashing globally, in South Sudan, UNICEF has been playing a leading role in promoting handwashing with soap or ash as a crucial practice in the fight against the on-going outbreaks of cholera and acute watery diarrhoea.
"The findings show that it is feasible to combine genetic data and social structure to give an idea of the transmission chain and to distinguish two outbreaks going on at the same time," says Joel Miller, a research fellow in the Center for Communicable Disease Dynamics at the Harvard School of Public Health.
"Even if it were H5N1, we would still be looking for clear evidence of widespread community outbreaks going on in countries in multiple regions," said Fukuda.
Why, then, was the German outbreak so widespread, and where did the bacteria go between outbreaks?
"We have a significant, serious outbreak going on here," said David A. Papi, director of the Middlesex County Public Health Department.
You have a bad acne outbreak right before going on a hot date, even though you haven't had a pimple in weeks.
"It is very important that we look at that resource because this outbreak was identified because of a lot of work going on around preparedness".
