Therefore, detection of a LD outbreak creates important opportunities for prevention through the elimination of transmission sources and colonization reservoirs in community and residential settings and opportunities for prompt, effective treatment of individuals infected during an outbreak [ 7, 8].
However, I've not really got any time for people who see this alarmingly dangerous outbreak as an opportunity for self-promotion.
But as a former public-health researcher (I am now a vice president in governmental affairs in Europe for Johnson & Johnson, work that has no relation to the mad cow issue), I feel we should also look at each new outbreak as an opportunity to enhance public health.
An opinion piece in the New Scientist said: "The Ebola outbreak is an opportunity to clamp down on a practice which both causes disease outbreaks and empties forests of wildlife.
The Reunion outbreak is "an opportunity to reactivate the research effort and to bring the vaccine to licensure," says Colonel David Vaughn, who heads the infectious disease research program at the U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command.
This outbreak provided an opportunity to test the hypothesis that simultaneous measures of M. tuberculosis-specific IFN-γ and IL-2 secretion may improve identification of individuals with the highest risk of recent infection with M. tuberculosis.
The Dutch outbreak is an opportunity to gain more knowledge in this field.
This outbreak provided an opportunity to study the incubation period of V. corneae keratoconjunctivitis in otherwise healthy persons.
The investigation of this outbreak provided an opportunity to determine whether coverage was as high as had been reported.
The 2009 influenza outbreak provided an opportunity for clinical testing of a pandemic influenza VLP vaccine in the midst of the outbreak at its epicenter in Mexico.
