-
Sarah O'Brien,
Greta Rait,
Paul Hunter,
James Gray,
Frederick Bolton,
David Tompkins,
Jim McLauchlin,
Louise Letley,
Goutam Adak,
John Cowden,
Meirion Evans,
Keith Neal,
Gillian Smith,
Brian Smyth, Clarence Tam,
Laura Rodrigues
[show abstract]
[hide abstract]
ABSTRACT: Abstract
Background
Infectious intestinal disease (IID), usually presenting as diarrhoea and vomiting, is frequently preventable. Though often mild and self-limiting, its commonness makes IID an important public health problem. In the mid 1990s around 1 in 5 people in England suffered from IID a year, costing around £0.75 billion. No routine information source describes the UK's current community burden of IID. We present here the methods for a study to determine rates and aetiology of IID in the community, presenting to primary care and recorded in national surveillance statistics. We will also outline methods to determine whether or not incidence has declined since the mid-1990s.
Methods/design
The Second Study of Infectious Intestinal Disease in the Community (IID2 Study) comprises several separate but related studies. We use two methods to describe IID burden in the community - a retrospective telephone survey of self-reported illness and a prospective, all-age, population-based cohort study with weekly follow-up over a calendar year. Results from the two methods will be compared. To determine IID burden presenting to primary care we perform a prospective study of people presenting to their General Practitioner with symptoms of IID, in which we intervene in clinical and laboratory practice, and an audit of routine clinical and laboratory practice in primary care. We determine aetiology of IID using molecular methods for a wide range of gastrointestinal pathogens, in addition to conventional diagnostic microbiological techniques, and characterise isolates further through reference typing. Finally, we combine all our results to calibrate national surveillance data.
Discussion
Researchers disagree about the best method(s) to ascertain disease burden. Our study will allow an evaluation of methods to determine the community burden of IID by comparing the different approaches to estimate IID incidence in its linked components.
BMC Medical Research Methodology. 01/2010;
-
[show abstract]
[hide abstract]
ABSTRACT: Abstract
Background
Studies suggest that routine variations in public drinking water turbidity may be associated with endemic gastrointestinal illness. We systematically reviewed the literature on this topic.
Methods
We searched databases and websites for relevant studies in industrialized countries. Studies investigating the association between temporal variations in drinking water turbidity and incidence of acute gastrointestinal illness were assessed for quality. We reviewed good quality studies for evidence of an association between increased turbidity and gastrointestinal illness.
Results
We found six relevant good quality studies. Of five studies investigating effluent water turbidity, two found no association. Two studies from Philadelphia reported increased paediatric and elderly hospital use on specific days after increased turbidity. A fifth study reported more telephone health service calls on specific days after peak turbidity. There were differences between studies affecting their comparability, including baseline turbidity and adjustment for seasonal confounders.
Conclusion
It is likely that an association between turbidity and GI illness exists in some settings or over a certain range of turbidity. A pooled analysis of available data using standard methods would facilitate interpretation.
BMC Public Health. 01/2007;
-
[show abstract]
[hide abstract]
ABSTRACT: Campylobacter jejuni infection frequently presents as acute enteritis with diarrhoea, malaise, fever and abdominal pain. Vomiting and bloody diarrhoea are reported less frequently. To investigate potential host, micro-organism or environmental factors that might explain the different clinical presentations, the features of laboratory-confirmed Campylobacter jejuni cases presenting with vomiting and/or bloody diarrhoea were compared with cases who did not report either clinical manifestation. Single variable analysis and logistic regression were employed. Explanatory variables included food, water and environmental risks. Cases who reported vomiting and/or bloody diarrhoea tended to suffer a longer illness and were more likely to require hospital admission. Independent risks identified were being a child, female gender, consumption of poultry other than chicken, pre-packed sandwiches and sausages, and reported engineering work or problems with drinking-water supply. A dose-response relationship with vomiting and/or bloody diarrhoea and increasing daily consumption of unboiled tap water was observed also. Vomiting and/or bloody diarrhoea characterized the more severe end of the disease spectrum and might relate to host susceptibility and/or infective dose. The role of unboiled tap water as a potential source of C. jejuni infection in England and Wales requires further investigation.
Journal of Medical Microbiology 07/2006; 55(Pt 6):741-6. · 2.50 Impact Factor
-
