Disease Outbreak Detection, Retinal Gene Therapy

Main Category: Infectious Diseases / Bacteria / Viruses
Also Included In: Bio-terrorism / Terrorism;  Eye Health / Blindness;  Veterinary
Article Date: 29 Jun 2007 - 8:00 PST

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An epidemiological network model for disease outbreak detection

Advanced disease-surveillance systems have been deployed worldwide to provide early detection of infectious disease outbreaks and bioterrorist attacks. New methods that improve the overall detection capabilities of these systems can have a broad practical impact. However, most surveillance systems do not hold up when there are shifts in health care utilization such as caused by public-health crises and major public events, such as the Olympic Games. In this modeling paper Ben Reis and colleagues, from Harvard Medical School, developed models, known as network models, that were able to detect localized outbreaks better and which were more robust to unpredictable shifts in healthcare utilization

Citation: Reis BY, Kohane IS, Mandl KD (2007) An epidemiological network model for disease outbreak detection. PLoS Med 4(6): e210.

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CONTACT:

Ben Reis
Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology
Childrens Hospital Informatics Program
1 Autumn St Room 540.1
Boston, MA 02115
United States of America

Canine and human visual cortex intact and responsive despite early retinal blindness from RPE65 mutation

The study by Samuel Jacobson and colleagues suggests that retinal gene therapy can improve retinal, visual pathway, and visual cortex responses to light stimulation, even after prolonged periods of blindness and in congenitally blind patients.

Citation: Aguirre GK, Kom'romy AM, Cideciyan AV, Brainard DH, Alem'n TS, et al. (2007) Canine and human visual cortex intact and responsive despite early retinal blindness from RPE65 mutation. PLoS Med 4(7): e230.

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http://medicine.plosjournals.org/perlserv/

CONTACT:

Samuel Jacobson
University of Pennsylvania Scheie Eye Institute
Ophthalmology
51 North 39th Street
Philadelphia, PA 19104-2689
United States of America

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Article adapted by Medical News Today from original press release.
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