Browsing by Subject "vaccination"
Now showing 1 - 7 of 7
- Results Per Page
- Sort Options
Item An Analytical Study of the Perceptions, Prevention Strategies, Treatment and Economic Impact of Equine West Nile Virus(2004-06-01) Galvan, Robert; Lurie, Sue; Singh, Karan; Gonzalez, AdelaGalvan, Robert, M.P.H., M.S. An Analytical Study of the Perceptions, Prevention Strategies, Treatment and Economic Impact of Equine West Nile Virus. Doctor of Public Health, Social and Behavioral Sciences, June 2004, 109 pp., 16 Tables, 15 Figures, 47 Titles. Since the introduction of the West Nile Virus (WNV) in the United State in 1999, WNV has been the cause of disease and deaths in humans, wild birds, zoo birds, and horses. In 2002, more than 15,000 equines in 40 states were diagnosed with illness associated with WNV. Approximately one third of those horses died or were euthanized (Campbell et al, 2002). Horses are infected with the WNV more often than humans or any other mammal. It is becoming on e of the fastest growing health threats to horses nationwide. Texas responded to the discovery of WNV by expanding their surveillance systems in the eastern counties of the state (Texas Department of Health, 2003). Positive reports for WNV were announced in 2002, which prompted an increase in public education and equine vaccination recommendations. Although much has been reported on the economic impact WNV has on human health and hospital care facilities, documentation is lacking on these issues in the equine population. Understanding the biology, epidemiology, economic impact, and how WNV affects the equine industry are important aspects to public health programs and prevention activities. The objectives of this study are to: (1) examine WNV cases in the equine population in Texas in order to better understand the distribution of clinical disease, signs, treatments and outcomes; (2) to provide information regarding the perceptions, knowledge, concerns, and treatment of the WNV by Texas veterinarians; and (3) to determine the economic impact of the WNV on the equine population in the state. A 14 question survey was mailed to licensed veterinarians in Texas in an effort to gather information about their perceptions and beliefs of the WNV, recommended treatment preferences, and the estimated cost of treatment. Outcomes included case fatality rate, descriptive data, veterinarians’ knowledge of WNV, veterinarians’ beliefs/perceptions of WNV, and the economic impact of WNV. Descriptive analyses were performed by using SPSS version 11. The methods used for analysis of WNV data were primarily simple descriptive statistics including summations and frequencies. A cross-tabulation was performed between the results of Questions 1, 2, and 3 and a variable created to approximate the number of veterinarians that actually treated cases of WNV (treat). A cross-tabulation and Chi-square analysis was performed between the treatment variables (treat) and derived variables of Questions 1, 2, and 3 to examine differing beliefs and knowledge between veterinarians who had treated WNV and those who had not. Seven hundred of 4,177 surveys returned yielded a response rate of 16.8 percent. Among the veterinarians, 73.4% (514/691) believed that they are receiving or received enough training and/or education concerning WNV. The vaccination regimen is believed to be effective and reliable by 56.1% (393/691) of the respondents. There were 1,256 cases of equine WNV reported confirmed via laboratory testing. There were also 766 cases reported that were not confirmed via laboratory testing. Among the 2,022 diagnosed cases, 257 were vaccinated against WNV prior to illness; and, 159 cases were vaccinated after signs of illness. A total of 441 horses died as either a direct cause of the disease or by owner or veterinarian elected euthanasia. The most common criteria used to decide euthanasia in these horses was prolonged recumbency as reported by 44.2% (87/197) or the veterinarians. Fifty-two percent (233/488) of the veterinarians did not recommend prevention strategies to equine owners. The cost of vaccination regimen was reported by 63% (269/434) of the veterinarians to be $25 or less. The results of the survey suggest that there could be a need for WVN education among veterinarians in areas of prevention, control, and treatment. Future studies should be conducted to examine owner perceptions, knowledge and beliefs of WNV vaccinations and prevention strategies. Values for lost horses were not solicited in the survey, thus, a total economic impact could not be completely estimated. However, a formula to approximate the aggregate economic impact of the WNV on the Texas equine industry was employed.Item Demographic and Psychosocial Correlates of COVID-19 Vaccination Status among a Statewide Sample in Texas(MDPI, 2023-04-28) Luningham, Justin M.; Akpan, Idara N.; Taskin, Tanjila; Alkhatib, Sarah A.; Vishwanatha, Jamboor K.; Thompson, Erika L.The COVID-19 pandemic has been a global public health concern since early 2020 and has required local and state-level responses in the United States. There were several Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved vaccines available for the prevention of COVID-19 as of August 2022, yet not all states have achieved high vaccination coverage. Texas is a particularly unique state with a history of opposing vaccination mandates, as well as a large and ethnically/racially diverse population. This study explored the demographic and psychosocial correlates of COVID-19 vaccinations among a statewide sample in Texas. A quota sample of 1089 individuals was surveyed online from June-July 2022. The primary outcome in this study was COVID-19 vaccination status (fully vaccinated, partially vaccinated, or unvaccinated) and included independent variables related to demographics, COVID-19 infection/vaccine attitudes and beliefs, and challenges related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Hispanic/Latinx individuals were more likely than non-Hispanic White individuals to be partially vaccinated as opposed to unvaccinated. Higher education levels and confidence that the FDA would ensure a safe COVID-19 vaccine were strongly associated with a higher likelihood of being fully vaccinated. In addition, some challenges brought on by the pandemic and concerns about becoming infected or infecting others were associated with a higher likelihood of being partially or fully vaccinated. These findings emphasize the need to further investigate the interaction between individual and contextual factors in improving COVID-19 vaccination rates, especially among vulnerable and disadvantaged populations.Item Effectiveness of provider communication training for increasing human papillomavirus vaccine initiation at a safety-net health system(Elsevier Inc., 2024-03-01) Meadows, Rachel J.; Gehr, Aaron W.; Lu, Yan; Maynard, Grace; Akpan, Idara N.; Taskin, Tanjila; Fulda, Kimberly G.; Patel, Divya; Matches, Sarah; Ojha, Rohit P.; Thompson, Erika L.BACKGROUND: Strong provider recommendation can increase uptake of human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination. Therefore, we developed and implemented a provider education intervention on communication strategies for recommending HPV vaccination with clinic-level audit and feedback (HPV: Communicating about HPV to Adults and Teens [HPV CHAT]). We aimed to evaluate the effect of HPV CHAT on HPV vaccine uptake in seven family medicine and pediatric clinics in a large urban health system (USA). METHODS: We used a quasi-experimental design, where the eligible population included people aged 9-26 years with at least one encounter in June 2020-February 2023 at one of the participating community health clinics. We used interrupted time-series analysis to assess changes in the prevalence of HPV vaccine uptake. We used segmented Poisson regression with a log link function to estimate prevalence ratios (PR) and 95% confidence limits (CL) for level (immediate) and slope (over time) changes with adjustment for seasonality using Fourier transformation. RESULTS: Our study population comprised 60,328 observations in which the median age was 17 years (interquartile range: 13-21). A majority (58%) were female and 87% were racial/ethnic minorities. Overall, we observed no sizeable effect of the intervention on HPV vaccination uptake. Nonetheless, heterogeneity was observed by age group with modest increases in individuals aged 9-12 and 13-17 years. CONCLUSION: Our provider feedback intervention had minimal effect on increasing prevalence of HPV vaccination in seven family medicine and pediatric clinics. Novel strategies are needed to address provider barriers related to HPV vaccination.Item Factors associated with COVID-19-related mental health among Asian Indians in the United States(Elsevier B.V., 2023-01-11) Ikram, Mohammad; Shaikh, Nazneen F.; Siddiqui, Zasim A.; Dwibedi, Nilanjana; Misra, Ranjita; Vishwanatha, Jamboor K.; Sambamoorthi, UshaBACKGROUND: In the United States, the COVID-19 pandemic has caused increased mental health symptoms and mental illness. Specific subgroups such as Asian Indians in the US have also been subject to additional stressors due to unprecedented loss of lives in their home country and increased Asian hate due to the misperception that Asians are to be blamed for the spread of the SARS-CoV-2. OBJECTIVE: We examined the various factors including discrimination associated with COVID-19-related mental health symptoms among Asian Indians. METHODS: We administered an online survey between May 2021 and July 2021 using convenient and snowball sampling methods to recruit Asian Indian adults (age > 18 years, N = 289). The survey included questions on mental health and the experience with unfair treatment in day-to-day life. Descriptive analysis and logistic regressions were performed. RESULTS: Overall, 46.0% reported feeling down, depressed, or lonely and feeling nervous, tense, or worried due to the COVID-19 pandemic; 90.0% had received at least one dose of vaccination and 74.7% reported some form of discrimination. In the fully-adjusted logistic regression, age (AOR = 0.95; 95%CI- 0.92, 0.97;p < 0.01) and general health (AOR=0.84; 95%CI- 0.73, 0.97; p < 0.015) were negatively associated with mental health symptoms. Participants who experienced discrimination were more likely (AOR=1.26; 95%CI- 1.08, 1.46; p < 0.01) to report mental health symptoms. CONCLUSION: In this highly vaccinated group of Asian Indians discriminatory behaviors were associated with mental health symptoms suggesting the need for novel institutional level policy responses to reduce anti-Asian racism.Item Individual child and parental factors that influence influenza vaccination in children 6 months to 59 months of age(2011-12-01) Offutt-Powell, Tabatha; Kathryn CardarelliInfluenza illness is a vaccine-preventable disease, yet seasonal outbreaks occur yearly and vaccination coverage rates remain suboptimal. Given that childhood vaccination is dependent on parental decision-making processes, parental beliefs about influenza vaccination are important for elucidating the underlying factors contributing to suboptimal influenza vaccination coverage rates of young children. Furthermore, the 2009 H1N1 influenza pandemic was well-publicized in the media, yet the lack of increased vaccination coverage among pediatric populations during the pandemic may reflect insufficient concern regarding the threat of influenza. Our study aimed to evaluate the effect of social and behavioral factors that may influence parental decision making and subsequently influenza vaccination of children attending daycare during the 2010 – 2011 influenza season in Tarrant County, Texas. Our study involved the administration of a one-time self-administered paper survey to parents of children aged 6 months to 59 months attending home- or center-based daycare. One hundred sixty six parents from twenty-three daycares completed the survey. Logistic regression was used to estimate odds ratios for total associations and corresponding 95% confidence limits (CL) of each factor on influenza vaccine uptake. Our results suggest that physician recommendation (OR=16.4, 95% CL: 5.5, 48.6) and parents with high levels of preventive behaviors (High: OR=7.1, 95% CL: 1.9, 26.4; Moderate: OR=1.4, 95% CL: 0.4, 5.3) influence influenza vaccination of children in daycare. Parents with a high perceived threat of the 2009 H1N1 pandemic influenza strain had greater odds of vaccinating their children than parents with high perceived threat of influenza illness compared to parents with a low perceived threat of influenza illness (High: OR=3.3, 95% CL: 2.1, 5.1; Moderate: OR=1.2, 95% CL: 0.8, 1.8) and this association varied by race/ethnicity. Although preliminary, our findings suggest the potential relation of physician recommendation and parental preventive behaviors, with limited effect of the 2009 H1N1 influenza pandemic, as influential factors in the relation between health beliefs and behaviors and vaccination decision-making for children attending daycare. Future research may benefit from continued exploration of social and behavioral factors that influence influenza vaccination of children in pediatric populations with consideration of the measurement of social and health behavior constructs.Item Nasal Tumor Vaccination Protects against Lung Tumor Development by Induction of Resident Effector and Memory Anti-Tumor Immune Responses(MDPI, 2023-02-26) Donkor, Michael; Choe, Jamie Y.; Reid, Danielle; Quinn, Byron; Pulse, Mark; Ranjan, Amalendu P.; Chaudhary, Pankaj; Jones, Harlan P.Lung metastasis is a leading cause of cancer-related deaths. Here, we show that intranasal delivery of our engineered CpG-coated tumor antigen (Tag)-encapsulated nanoparticles (NPs)-nasal nano-vaccine-significantly reduced lung colonization by intravenous challenge of an extra-pulmonary tumor. Protection against tumor-cell lung colonization was linked to the induction of localized mucosal-associated effector and resident memory T cells as well as increased bronchiolar alveolar lavage-fluid IgA and serum IgG antibody responses. The nasal nano-vaccine-induced T-cell-mediated antitumor mucosal immune response was shown to increase tumor-specific production of IFN-gamma and granzyme B by lung-derived CD8(+) T cells. These findings demonstrate that our engineered nasal nano-vaccine has the potential to be used as a prophylactic approach prior to the seeding of tumors in the lungs, and thereby prevent overt lung metastases from existing extra pulmonary tumors.Item Perceptions Regarding Tarrant County's Preparedness for a Bioterrorism Attack Involving Smallpox(2003-05-01) Michael, Donald T.; Sally Blakley; Samuel AtkinsonMichael III, Donald T., Perceptions Regarding Tarrant County’s Preparedness for a Bioterrorism Attack Involving Smallpox. Master of Public Health (Epidemiology), May 2003, 51 pp., 10 tables, bibliography, 26 titles. Perception and knowledge of risk of a bioterrorist attack are important factors in determining public response and anxiety level. A telephone survey of residents of Tarrant County, Texas was conducted to determine public perception regarding Tarrant County’s preparedness to respond to an intentional release of the smallpox virus as an act of terrorism. Although a low response rate limits the ability to generalize the findings of this survey, frequency and chi-squared analysis of survey responses revealed a public desire for more information about the county’s preparedness, access to smallpox vaccine, and identified a potential gap between objectively measured and public self-assessment of knowledge about bioterrorism and smallpox concepts. Increased efforts toward information dissemination and education of the Tarrant County community are needed to address these concerns.