Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
data sources to achieve a unified and comprehensive view of the current
global state of infectious diseases and their effect on human and animal
health (Brownstein et al. 2008). Data sources of varying reliability range from
news sources (such as Google News) to curated personal accounts (such as
ProMED-mail) to validated official alerts (such as WHO). Through an auto-
mated text processing system, the data is aggregated by disease and dis-
played on a freely available Web site (http://www.healthmap.org) by location
for user-friendly access to the original alert. In parallel to these automated
efforts, HealthMap has built a community component, whereby site users
are able to contribute to and curate data.
In addition to enhancing early detection of threats, new technologies and
management approaches have facilitated the targeting and guiding of inter-
vention efforts. A number of medical journals have modified the so-called
Inglefinger rule to prepublish electronic versions of articles of significant
importance. The CDC's MMWR has, over the past decade, accelerated its edi-
torial process to allow electronic publication of information and guidance for
important breaking events (dispatches). The anthrax outbreak of 2001 illus-
trated the need for timely provision of guidance to public health officials,
medical providers, and the public during a complex and rapidly evolving
situation. At the time, CDC was subjected to criticism for its inability to pro-
vide timely and definitive answers to a host of novel challenges and unique
circumstances (Gursky 2003). More recently, in contrast, in responding to the
threats posed by pandemic influenza, the U.S. government created a Web
site, www.flu.gov, that is described as “one-stop access to U.S. government
H1N1, avian, and pandemic flu information.” The site is populated with
transcripts of press conferences and recommendations created by CDC and
its partners to address a variety of circumstances in the home, school, and
workplace. It also provides answers to frequently asked questions and other
relevant information.
Member states of the WHO are bound by the International Health
Regulations, which mandates reporting of a small group of specified com-
municable diseases; prior to their revision in 2005, for other diseases, includ-
ing newly emerging ones, WHO had to rely upon voluntary reporting from
member states (Tucker 2005). The Chinese government delayed reporting the
initial outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) to the WHO
when it first emerged in Guangdong Province in late 2002. This failure to
report the outbreak resulted in SARS spreading to other countries via inter-
national travel and impeded the initial response efforts (WHO 2003).
Countries may choose to suppress notification of disease outbreaks within
their borders for a variety of reasons: The outbreak may represent an acciden-
tal release of an offensive biological or chemical weapon, as in the anthrax
outbreak in Sverdlovsk in 1979 (Meselson et al. 1994). A sovereign state may
not wish to publicize the event because it may be a source of embarrassment,
exposing inadequate infrastructure (the medical care system, or the system
for overseeing food and water safety). A nation may also view itself as “at
