Public Health Commons^™

Rickettsia Felis In Cat Fleas, Ctenocephalides Felis Parasitizing Opossums, San Bernardino County, California, Kyle F. Abramowicz, J. W. Wekesa, C. N. Nwadike, Maria L. Zambrano, Sandor E. Karpathy, D. Cecil, J. Burns, R. Hu, Marina E. Eremeeva

Environmental Health Sciences Faculty Publications

Los Angeles and Orange Counties are known endemic areas for murine typhus in California; however, no recent reports of flea-borne rickettsioses are known from adjacent San Bernardino County. Sixty-five opossums (Didelphis virginiana) were trapped in the suburban residential and industrial zones of the southwestern part of San Bernardino County in 2007. Sixty out of 65 opossums were infested with fleas, primarily cat fleas, Ctenocephalides felis (Bouché, 1835). The flea minimum infection rate with Rickettsia felis was 13.3% in pooled samples and the prevalence was 23.7% in single fleas, with two gltA genotypes detected. In spite of historic records of murine …

Environmental Health News, Georgia Southern University

Environmental Health News (2012-2018)

• JPHCOPH Examines Food Contaminants

Epidemiology News, Georgia Southern University

Epidemiology News (2012-2018)

• JPHCOPH Student Publications

Health Policy & Management News, Georgia Southern University

Health Policy & Management Department News (2011-2018)

• Interorganizational Sharing

Health Policy & Management News, Georgia Southern University

Health Policy & Management Department News (2011-2018)

• JPHCOPH Examines Cancer Screenings

Environmental Health News, Georgia Southern University

Environmental Health News (2012-2018)

• JPHCOPH Examines Mobile Clinic Outreach to Migrant Farmworkers

Using Photovoice In Pete Programs To Initiate Positive Change, Gavin T. Colquitt, Jody Langdon, Tony A. Pritchard, Starla Mccollum

Community Health Faculty Presentations

The purpose of this presentation will be to provide teacher educators with an overview of the Photovoice methodology and its potential utility in curricular change. The National Association for Sport and Physical Education’s ([NASPE], 2008) PETE standards state educators should allow diversity to drive instructional related decision-making. Photovoice, a participatory action research methodology, is a tool teacher educators can use to be responsive to the continuously changing contexts of public schools.

Do The Opportunities Offered During The School Day Provide The Recommended Physical Activity Levels For Children?: An Assessment Of The Upson County Pre-Kindergarten And Elementary School Physical Activity Occurrences, Cheryl Lynn Robinson Gaddis

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Problem Statement: Almost 90% of students do not meet the national recommendations for physical activity in school. The purpose of this study was to determine the need for school policy changes to incorporate classroom-based physical activity programs in an effort to increase school physical activity levels for children in grades pre-kindergarten through five by assessing the levels of and the barriers/facilitators to physical activity engagement.

Methods: This was a sequential explanatory mixed methods study utilizing school board members, principals, and teachers in the Upson County School System as participants. The online survey was adapted from the School Health …

Environmental Health News, Georgia Southern University

Environmental Health News (2012-2018)

• Dr. Bossak Examines Changes to the Electronic Health Records

Epidemiology News, Georgia Southern University

Epidemiology News (2012-2018)

• Variations in Birth Weight

Health Policy & Management News, Georgia Southern University

Health Policy & Management Department News (2011-2018)

• Dr. Talar Markossian named Exceptional Reviewer

Health Policy & Management News, Georgia Southern University

Health Policy & Management Department News (2011-2018)

• Dr. Renee Hotchkiss named to the Board of Directors

Health Policy & Management News, Georgia Southern University

Health Policy & Management Department News (2011-2018)

• Georgia Southern Examines Childhood Disparities

Epidemiology News, Georgia Southern University

Epidemiology News (2012-2018)

• Georgia Southern Professors Receive Community Health Needs Assessment Grant

How To Minimize The Attack Rate During Multiple Influenza Outbreaks In A Heterogeneous Population, Isaac Chun-Hai Fung, Rustom Antia, Andreas Handel

Isaac Chun-Hai Fung

Background: If repeated interventions against multiple outbreaks are not feasible, there is an optimal level of control during the first outbreak. Any control measures above that optimal level will lead to an outcome that may be as sub-optimal as that achieved by an intervention that is too weak. We studied this scenario in more detail.
Method: An age-stratified ordinary-differential-equation model was constructed to study infectious disease outbreaks and control in a population made up of two groups, adults and children. The model was parameterized using influenza as an example. This model was used to simulate two consecutive outbreaks of the …

Health Policy & Management News, Georgia Southern University

Health Policy & Management Department News (2011-2018)

• Disparities in Breast Cancer

Epidemiology News, Georgia Southern University

Epidemiology News (2012-2018)

• Disparities in Breast Cancer

Rickettsia Felis In Ctenocephalides Felis From Guatemala And Costa Rica, Adriana Troyo, Danilo Alvarez, Lizeth Taylor, Gabriela Abdalla, Olger Calderon-Arguedas, Maria L. Zambrano, Gregory A. Dasch, Kim A. Lindblade, Laya Hun, Marina Eremeeva, Alejandra Estevez

Environmental Health Sciences Faculty Publications

Rickettsia felis is an emerging human pathogen associated primarily with the cat flea Ctenocephalides felis. In this study, we investigated the presence of Rickettsia felis in C. felis from Guatemala and Costa Rica. Ctenocephalides felis were collected directly from dogs and cats, and analyzed by polymerase chain reaction for Rickettsia-specific fragments of 17-kDa protein, OmpA, and citrate synthase genes. Rickettsia DNA was detected in 64% (55 of 86) and 58% (47 of 81) of flea pools in Guatemala and Costa Rica, respectively. Sequencing of gltA fragments identified R. felis genotype URRWXCal2 in samples from both countries, and genotype Rf2125 in …

Health Policy & Management News, Georgia Southern University

Health Policy & Management Department News (2011-2018)

• Provider Perceptions

College Of Public Health News, Georgia Southern University

Jiann-Ping Hsu College of Public Health News (2011-2023)

• Broadening the Impact of JPHCOPH

College Of Public Health News, Georgia Southern University

Jiann-Ping Hsu College of Public Health News (2011-2023)

• Congratulations JPHCOPH Faculty!

Health Policy & Management News, Georgia Southern University

Health Policy & Management Department News (2011-2018)

• Congratulations JPHCOPH Faculty!

Environmental Health News, Georgia Southern University

Environmental Health News (2012-2018)

• NOAA Research Grant

College Of Public Health News, Georgia Southern University

Jiann-Ping Hsu College of Public Health News (2011-2023)

• NOAA Research Grant

Health Districts As Quality Improvement Collaboratives And Multi-Jurisdictional Entities, William C. Livingood, Nandi A. Marshall, Angela Peden, Ketty Gonzales, Gulzar H. Shah, Dayna S. Alexander, Kellie O. Penix, Russell B. Toal, Lynn D. Woodhouse

Health Policy and Management Faculty Presentations

Research Objective: The Georgia Public Health PBRN assessed the utility of the Multi-county Health District as a structured Quality Improvement Collaborative (QIC), and as multi jurisdictional entities for purposes of meeting standards for accreditation by the Public Health Accreditation Board.

Data Sets and Sources: Data were collected from online surveys followed up with phone interviews or paper surveys to maximize participation. A newly developed clinical care QIC instrument (Schouten et al, 2010) was modified to collect data with a revised focus on QICs for public health. We retained QI culture constructs in the instrument while shifting the focus …

The Resilient Local Health Department: Attributes Of Survival During The Economic Crisis, Paul C. Erwin, Gulzar H. Shah

Health Policy and Management Faculty Presentations

The purpose of this research is to explore the attributes of local health departments (LHDs) which have survived the recent economic crises without loss of staff. A retrospective cohort study is being conducted, using the 2005 and 2010 Profile of Local Health Departments datasets from the National Association of County and City Health Officials. LHDs which responded to both surveys and which provided data on full-time equivalents (FTEs) and expenditures are included for analysis. LHDs are categorized as resilient or non-resilient based on whether the LHD gained or did not lose FTEs between 2005 and 2010 (“resilient LHD”) vs. those …

Extent And Nature Of Resource Sharing Among Local Health Departments, Joshua Vest, Gulzar H. Shah

Health Policy and Management Faculty Presentations

Objective: Collaborative arrangements between local health departments (LHDs) by which they share services, responsibilities, or staff, is a growing occurrence in the US. This phenomenon is referred to as regionalization, resource sharing, or intra-state resource sharing. Participants of this session will learn about the current state of resource sharing among LHDs in terms of the public health activities, nature of the relationships, and geography. We will also discuss which characteristics of LHDs are associated with resource-sharing.

Data Source: Data for this analysis come from the National Association of City & County Health Official's 2010 Profile of Local Health Departments. The …

Diffusion Of Practice-Based Research In Local Public Health: What Differentiates Adopters From Non-Adopters?, Gulzar H. Shah, Kay Lovelace, Reba Novich

Health Policy and Management Faculty Presentations

Objective: To improve session-participants’ understanding of level of local health departments’ (LHDs) involvement in various practice-based research (PBR) activities. Practice-based public health research is gaining increased recognition for improving the efficiency and effectiveness of public health practice.

Data: Data are drawn from NACCHO’s 2010 National Profile of LHDs Study. Questions about LHDs’ participation in PBR were administered to a stratified random sample of 625 LHDs.

Findings: Over the 12 months prior to the study 38 percent of LHDs did not participate in any PBR activity and another five percent of respondents did not know if their health department …

Environmental Health News, Georgia Southern University

Environmental Health News (2012-2018)

• Evaluation of Diverse Community Asthma Interventions

College Of Public Health News, Georgia Southern University

Jiann-Ping Hsu College of Public Health News (2011-2023)

• Project ADEPT