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Vol 16 no 51 |
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Final Issue: Volume 16 Number 51 |
Published on: 21 December 2006 |
Final Issue in PDF |
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Last updated: Volume 15, No.5 (PDF file, 523 KB)
Archives | News Archives 2006: Page 1| 3 February 2005
News Archives: | 2006 | 2005 | 2004 | 2003
From 7 February 2005, the CDR Weekly will publish new content in the Infection Reports section. The new category will be entitled Emerging infections/CJD, and will include quarterly updates on possible emerging infections and on Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD). Reports will alternate quarterly between emerging infections and CJD, and will be produced to form a concise summary of important data, incidents, and developments in emerging infections and CJD. The first report is on emerging infections and is available at: <http://www.hpa.org.uk/cdr/pages/emerg_inf_cjd.htm>.
The following definition of emerging infections is used by the Department: “An emerging infectious disease is either a newly recognised, clinically distinct infectious disease, or a known disease whose reported incidence within the past two decades is increasing in a given place or among a specific population.”
The EIZ department was formed in 2004 and consists of the bioterrorism response/emerging infections, zoonoses, and CJD sections, based at the HPA’s Centre for Infections, Colindale, London. The work of the department covers:
For queries about the activities outlined above, please contact the head of the Emerging Infections and Zoonoses department, Dilys Morgan, email: <dilys.morgan@hpa.org.uk>.
A revised set of national guidelines Managing meningococcal disease (septicaemia or meningitis) in higher education institutions has been launched by Universities UK, in collaboration with the Health Protection Agency (HPA).
The guidelines, co-written by the director of the Agency's South West region, are aimed particularly at university and college health services and health protection units. The guidelines update a first edition published in 1998 and are in a new format, revised to take into account new national policy and the introduction of the Group C meningitis strain vaccine.
The guidelines set out the reasons why students are at particular risk of infection from meningococcal disease, and summarise the issues facing students, staff, university management, and health protection units. The publication provides advice on drafting plans to deal with incidents of meningococcal disease, with recommended action before and after a case of the disease occurs .
The document recommends that each higher education institution should ensure it has management protocol for dealing with such cases, which delivers:
Further contributors to the guidelines include: the British Association of Health Services in Higher Education, the Association of Managers of Students Services in Higher Education, the National Public Health Service for Wales , Health Protection Scotland, and the Public Health Medicine Environment Group.
The guidelines can be found at <http://bookshop.universitiesuk.ac.uk/show/?category=9>, or via the meningococcal disease pages of the HPA website, available at <http://www.hpa.org.uk/infections/topics_az/meningo/menu.htm>.
