The Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report is a weekly epidemiological periodical made available by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Atlanta in the USA for the expansion of the community health information and suggestions received by the CDC from the different state health departments on various health issues (Morbidity and Mortality Report, 2011; Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 2011). The report is available freely in the public domain (Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 2011). The review aims to analyze a CDC MMWR report and depict the reason involved in data collection, results display, likely recommendations, and proper usage of the data for a better health policy design.
Report Review. The title of the report being reviewed is “Limited Human-to-Human Transmission of Novel Influenza A (H3N2) Virus- Iowa, November 2011.” The report deals with the CDC confirming cases of swine origin triple reassortant Influenza A (H3N2) (S-OtrH3N2) virus infection in three children in Iowa. The reported cases were effectively found to be mild and reported in the children who were in contact during a gathering, but had no previous swine exposure; also the disease was not transmitted to any other contact of these subjects (Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 2011). Enhanced behavioral risk factor surveillance was done in the area (Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 2011) and the public health authorities asked suspected children (The Children’s Study, 2011) and adults with Influenza like illness and symptoms to go for diagnostic tests. Genetic tests of three respiratory samples indicated S-OtrH3N2 virus with Matrix (M) gene from the 2009 pandemic influenza virus. Not much was known about their transmittance capabilities from swine to human (Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 2011).
The data collected was respiratory specimen of the suspected individuals, patient reports with health and diagnostic information, the surveillance data of the area, and the historical to compare and predict the outcome for proper health program strategy. The data was collected by the health authorities of Iowa Department of Public Health, and was forwarded to the CDC for advanced analysis (Partners, 2011). The data collected is primary in nature, and the historical data for comparison are secondary sources published in the past. The results had demonstrated the confirmation of three human cases of infection with S-OtrH3N2 virus in Iowa with limited transmissive possibilities known. The three children had no previous exposure with the swine, but there came in contact with one another sometime. The recommendations include studying cases to fully acknowledge the transmission between humans, and with infected animals. A sustained partnership was therefore essential in the community and the state to determine the same (Partners, 2011). The people with symptoms were asked to go for rapid diagnostic tests, and possible, take seasonal influenza vaccines (Walden Welcome, 2011). The State health authorities were directed to send specimens to the CDC, Atlanta for further and advanced analysis for final confirmation.
Data usage for evidence based health program and policy making. The daily collected data and published in weekly report may be utilized to control the disease spread and also, predict the occurrence of infections in future. It may suggest the variations found in influenza viruses due to gene recombination, and helping the health authorities and researchers to be better prepared for future with evidence based (HealthAffairs, 2011).
References
Center for Disease Control and Prevention. (2011). “Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System.” Web.
Epidemiology and Public Health at CDC. Web.
Center for Disease Control and Prevention. (2011). “Limited Human-to-Human Transmission of Novel Influenza A (H3N2) Virus- Iowa, Web.
Center for Disease Control and Prevention. (2011). Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. Web.
Center for Disease Control and Prevention. (2011). “National Center For Health Statistics.” Web.
HealthAffairs. (2011). Promoting Evidence-based Public Health Policy: Can We Have Better Evidence And More Action? Web.
Morbidity and Mortality Report. (2011). In Wikipedia. Web.
Partners. (2011). “Health Data Tools and Statistics.” Web.
The Children’s Study. (2011). “What is the National Children’s Study?” Web.
Walden Welcome. (2011). Influenza Outbreak: Middletown, U.S.A. Web.