Anthrax is an acute infectious disease of historical importance caused by Bacillus anthracis (B. anthracis), a spore-forming, soil-borne bacterium with a remarkable ability to persist in the environment. Anthrax is endemic in many countries, including Georgia. Laboratory of the Ministry of Agriculture (LMA) has been actively working on the disease science 1907 and constantly improving diagnostics. In 2009-2017 the laboratory participated in cooperative biological studies.

During an influenza pandemic, when hospitals and doctors'™ offices are or are perceived to be overwhelmed, many ill people may not seek medical care. People may also avoid medical facilities due to fear of contracting influenza or transmitting it to others. Therefore, syndromic methods for monitoring illness outside of health care settings are important adjuncts to traditional disease reporting. Monitoring absenteeism trends in schools and workplaces provide the archetypal examples for such approaches.

Swaziland adopted the Integrated Disease Surveillance and Response (IDSR) strategy in 2010 to strengthen Public Health Surveillance (PHS) that fulfills International Health Regulations (2005) and the Global Health Security Agenda (GHSA). This strategy allows the Ministry of Health (MoH), Epidemiology and Disease Control Unit (EDCU) to monitor, prevent and control priority diseases in the country. We used a health systems strengthening approach to pilot an intervention model for IDSR implementation at five hospitals in Swaziland over a pilot phase of three months.

On April 14, 2016, British Columbia (BC)’s Provincial Health Officer declared a public health emergency due to a significant increase in drug-related overdoses and deaths in the Province. Despite the declaration, 161 suspected drug overdose deaths were reported across the Province in December 2016, a 137% increase over the number of deaths occurring in the same month of 2015. In response to the surge overdoses, Vancouver Coastal Health Authority (VCH), one of 5 health regions within BC, rapidly implemented a number of novel harm reduction initiatives.