MEDICAL ANTHROPOLOGY::
infectious disease; and finally, collaboration with members of other Univ . Pittsburg Press. 340 pp. 140. Weidman, H. 1971. Trained manpower
http://arjournals.annualreviews.org/doi/abs/10.1146/annurev.an.03.100174.001333HOME |
Source: http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/cityregion/s_583510.html
Pitt to study ways to avert an epidemic
By Allison M. Heinrichs
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
ECONOMIC GROWTH AND PHYSICAL IMPROVEMENT IN-::
File Format: PDF/Adobe AcrobatUniversity of Pittsburg, 1991, p. 234. 39) Howe, C., "Taiwan in the 20th Century : Model or Victim? Development Problems in a Small Asian
http://kamome.lib.ynu.ac.jp/dspace/bitstream/10131/3431/1/KJ00004763270.pdfHOME |
Monday, August 18, 2008
Before so much as a cough unleashes the next major disease epidemic, computers in Pittsburgh will have given world health officials an idea of how far and fast it will spread.
The University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health plans to announce today that it will be the headquarters for an international collaboration to develop computer simulations of infectious disease epidemics. The project to test the effectiveness of various vaccination strategies will be paid for with a $10 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
Conspicuous impacts of inconspicuous hosts on the Lyme disease ::
File Format: PDF/Adobe Acrobat - View as HTMLtargeted public health strategies to control the Lyme disease epidemic in PA: University of Pittsburg Press. Montgomery, S., Whelan, J. & Mosby,
http://www.ecostudies.org/reprints/Brisson_2007.pdfHOME |
"What the simulation allows you to do is take what you think is a good representation of how an epidemic would spread and test for the best combination of interventions, as well as the most cost-effective and the most feasible," said Dr. Donald Burke, dean of the Graduate School of Public Health. "So you can play out these scenarios in silicon, instead of real life."
The simulations will be run at the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center in Oakland. Penn State University and Imperial College London are the major partners in the project.
Full text of "Primer of sanitation, being a simple work on disease ::
POINTS TO BE REMEMBERED A government should quarantine epidemic diseases. It should build hospitals and sanatoria where the victims of infectious diseases
http://www.archive.org/stream/primerofsanitati00ritcuoft/primerofsanitati00ritcuoft_djvu.txtHOME |
An Issue Comes to a Head::
It's unlikely we have an enormous epidemic -- but we don't know what's out there ." A University of Pittsburg study made similar findings.
http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0108-07.htmHOME |
After gathering demographic information -- such as the transportation people use, the average size of a household, how often people interact with each other -- scientists will develop computer models that account for each individual in a given country.
Then the computer program will randomly "infect" someone with a disease. Initially the program will look at influenza, measles and dengue, a mosquito-borne illness. Those eventually will be followed by other diseases, including whooping cough, polio, malaria and tuberculosis.
Scientists will throw variables into the program, testing how the infection spreads if the entire population has been vaccinated, if only children have been vaccinated, if people are quarantined or told to work from home, or if nothing is done.
"On a normal desktop computer ... it would take several months to play out one of these scenarios," said Shawn Brown, a senior scientific specialist at the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center. "On the supercomputer, it is done in the span of a day."
The results would guide the Gates foundation, which makes health programs in third-world countries a priority, and public health organizations in making the best use of vaccines and developing effective immunization techniques, Burke said.
"Say you want to control measles in Africa. How much better does the measles vaccine need to be than the current vaccine? What are the particular aspects that are most important to focus on and which should you not waste time improving?" Burke said. "That's what we'll find out."
Allison M. Heinrichs can be reached at aheinrichs@tribweb.com or 412-380-5607.
Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2008-08/uops-pr081808.php
Pitt receives $10 million from Gates Foundation
Vaccine Modeling Initiative will use computer models to determine most successful vaccine technologies to quickly control epidemics
PITTSBURGH, Aug. 18 – To help select new vaccines that will have the best chances of stopping global infectious disease outbreaks, the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health has received a $10 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The grant will fund the creation of computer simulations of epidemics, showing worst- and best-case outbreak scenarios, which will be used to evaluate new vaccine technologies and modes of vaccine delivery.
The Vaccine Modeling Initiative, a research partnership among infectious disease modeling teams at the University of Pittsburgh, The Pennsylvania State University and Imperial College London, is headquartered at Pitt's Graduate School of Public Health. The project also involves collaborations with leading infectious disease experts, computational modelers and public health officials at Johns Hopkins University, the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center, Médecins Sans Frontières Epicentre, University of Georgia, Resources for the Future and the World Health Organization. The models they develop will be designed to fit the prevalence, incidence and geographic spread patterns of past epidemics in developing countries worldwide, and will help prevent future infectious disease epidemics by optimizing vaccine strategies for particular diseases and regions.
"Infectious diseases create an enormous burden on the world's population, from both a human suffering and an economic development perspective," said Donald S. Burke, M.D., principal investigator of the grant and dean of the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health. "One of the major challenges we face in stopping infectious disease outbreaks is predicting how control strategies, such as vaccines, will work. By using computer models to conduct 'epidemiology in silicon,' we will be able to test the impact of new candidate vaccine technologies and select the most effective strategies."
Initially, the project will focus on evaluation of new vaccine technologies for influenza, measles and dengue, a mosquito-borne infection, diseases that affect millions of people globally. Later, the project will develop vaccine models of epidemic pertussis, rotavirus, polio, pneumococcus, malaria and tuberculosis.
Project investigators will use high-powered computers to quickly perform complex calculations that simulate outbreak scenarios based on population size of a particular region or country, distribution of certain diseases and likelihood of a particular disease spreading. They will assess how differing vaccine strategies impact the spread of disease, essentially creating maps of disease and resultant treatment with vaccines. The goal is to guide public health experts across the globe in making decisions about vaccine strategies that have the most likelihood to succeed.
The investigators also plan to use computer simulations to evaluate potential new vaccines that do not require refrigeration and can be delivered through the skin without conventional needles.
"Many infectious diseases are preventable by simple vaccination, yet children in poor countries die of these diseases because they lack access to vaccines," said Dr. Burke. "By providing computer models to aid in decision-making, we will support efforts by the Gates Foundation and other partners to make vaccines safer and easier to administer and ultimately protect more children and adults against deadly infectious diseases."
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The two co-principal investigators on the grant are Bryan Grenfell, Ph.D., The Pennsylvania State University, and Neil Ferguson, Ph.D., Imperial College London.
The University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health (GSPH) was founded in 1948. A member of the Association of Schools of Public Health, GSPH ranks third among schools of public health in National Institutes of Health funding. For more information about GSPH, visit http://www.publichealth.pitt.edu.
Contact: Clare Collins
CollCX@upmc.edu
412-647-3555
University of Pittsburgh Schools of the Health Sciences
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U. of Pittsburg to model infectious disease epidemics 
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