19 had tested positive for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) by PCR. All 6 passengers had disembarked from cruise ships that had recently docked in Sydney. In the subsequent 2 weeks, several other cases of SARS-CoV-2 infection were identified among passengers on that flight. Although the role of cruise ships in SARS-CoV-2 transmission is well documented (1), information regarding potential flight-associated transmission of SARS-CoV-2 (2,3) is limited. We investigated SARS-CoV-2 transmission associated with a 5-hour domestic flight by analyzing epidemiologic and whole-genome sequencing (WGS) data. Ethics approval was not required for this investigation, conducted as part of the public health response to the SARS-CoV-2 outbreak under the Western Australia Public Health Act 2016. Methods Public Health Response to Coronavirus Disease in Australia In Australia, coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is an urgently notifiable disease (4); laboratory-confirmed cases and close contacts are investigated and managed according to national guidelines produced by the Communicable Disease Network of Australia (4). Details for flights with SARS-CoV-2 infectious persons on board are published at https://www. healthywa.wa.gov.au/coronavirus. Airlines are responsible for the management of crew and are notified of potential in-flight exposure by the National Incident Room (https://www.health.gov.au/initiatives-and-programs/national-incident-room).
Periods of successive extreme heat and cold temperature have major effects on human health and increase rates of health service utilisation. The severity of these events varies between geographic locations and populations. This study aimed to estimate the effects of heat waves and cold waves on health service utilisation across urban, regional and remote areas in New South Wales (NSW), Australia, during the 10-year study period 2005-2015. We divided the state into three regions and used 24 over-dispersed or zero-inflated Poisson time-series regression models to estimate the effect of heat waves and cold waves, of three levels of severity, on the rates of ambulance call-outs, emergency department (ED) presentations and mortality. We defined heat waves and cold waves using excess heat factor (EHF) and excess cold factor (ECF) metrics, respectively. Heat waves generally resulted in increased rates of ambulance call-outs, ED presentations and mortality across the three regions and the entire state. For all of NSW, very intense heat waves resulted in an increase of 10.8% (95% confidence interval (CI) 4.5, 17.4%) in mortality, 3.4% (95% CI 0.8, 7.8%) in ED presentations and 10.9% (95% CI 7.7, 14.2%) in ambulance call-outs. Cold waves were shown to have significant effects on ED presentations (9.3% increase for intense events, 95% CI 8.0-10.6%) and mortality (8.8% increase for intense events, 95% CI 2.1-15.9%) in outer regional and remote areas. There was little evidence for an effect from cold waves on health service utilisation in major cities and inner regional areas. Heat waves have a large impact on health service utilisation in NSW in both urban and rural settings. Cold waves also have significant effects in outer regional and remote areas. EHF is a good predictor of health service utilisation for heat waves, although service needs may differ between urban and rural areas.
Objective: To determine which measures of heatwave have the greatest predictive power for increases in health service utilisation in Perth, Western Australia. Methods:Three heatwave formulas were compared, using Poisson or zero-inflated Poisson regression, against the number of presentations to emergency departments from all causes, and the number of inpatient admissions from heat-related causes. The period from July 2006 to June 2013 was included. A series of standardised thresholds were calculated to allow comparison between formulas, in the absence of a gold standard definition of heatwaves.Results: Of the three heatwave formulas, Excess Heat Factor (EHF) produced the most clear dose-response relationship with Emergency Department presentations. The EHF generally predicted periods that resulted in a similar or higher rate of health service utilisation, as compared to the two other formulas, for the thresholds examined. Conclusions:The EHF formula, which considers a period of acclimatisation as well as the maximum and minimum temperature, best predicted periods of greatest health service demand. The strength of the dose-response relationship reinforces the validity of the measure as a predictor of hazardous heatwave intensity. Implications:The findings suggest that the EHF formula is well suited for use as a means of activating heatwave plans and identifies the required level of response to extreme heatwave events as well as moderate heatwave events that produce excess health service demand.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.