In the Digital Era, Is Community Outrage a Feasible Proxy Indicator of Emotional Epidemiology? The Case of Meningococcal Disease in Sardinia, Italy.

The aims of this study were (i) to evaluate the relationship between official data on invasive meningococcal disease cases in Sardinia and the reporting of the cases by a regional online newspaper and (ii) to identify indicators useful for understanding the community outrage related to health events. Cases of meningococcal disease, selected from articles published between 1999 and 2016 on a regional newspaper database, were compared to those reported to the Infectious Disease Information Service. In order to evaluate the equality of the two distribution records, the Kolgomorov Smirnov test for two samples was applied. A community outrage indicator was obtained by calculating the number of published articles for each case of meningococcal disease identified. The outrage indicator was evaluated in comparison with other phenomena: drinking water supply limitation and domestic accidents. Overall, 2724 articles on meningitis/sepsis referring to 89 cases related to meningococcal disease were considered. Significant differences between the distribution of cases officially reported and those found in the newspaper (combined K-S = 0.39; p = 0.08) were not observed. The meningococcal disease outrage indicator showed an average of seven items per case. Comparing the meningococcal disease outrage indicator with those regarding the limitation of drinking water supplies and domestic accidents, a different risk perception by the reference media was found, with the highest outrage for meningococcal disease. The present study supports the role played by emotional factors as behavioral determinants in emerging threats to public health. The analysis of the data allowed us to highlight that the proposed outrage indicator could be a feasible proxy of emotional epidemiology. Finally, data confirm that meningitis is perceived as a highly outrageous health threat.

Do I need training in public health ethics? A survey on Italian residents' beliefs, knowledge and curricula.

INTRODUCTION: Ethics is needed to support the decision-making process in public health and to face moral issues during practice. However, professionals are often not adequately trained. OBJECTIVES: In 2015, the National Conference of Public Health Medical Residents of the Italian Society of Public Health started the "Public Health Ethics" workgroup to evaluate how the Italian Schools of Public Health train their residents in ethics, and which are residents' beliefs, knowledge and attitudes about public health ethics. METHODS: A survey was built and emailed to the Italian public health residents. RESULTS: Residents are interested in ethics/bioethics (83.2%) and are aware of its importance for professional practice (97.2%). However, few of them (19.6%) evaluated their competence above a satisfactory level. They believe that a training in ethics should be offered during residency (92.1%). Nonetheless, in Italy only two schools required a course on bioethics, and one a course in public health ethics. According to residents, a public health ethics trainer should be a public health professional (23.2%) or a social scientist (22.8%). CONCLUSIONS: In Italy, Schools of Public Health do not train future professionals in ethics or public health ethics during residency. Training should be implemented in curricula, and trainers should have a strong competence in both public health and ethics.

[Microbial contamination of surfaces in the departments of Medicine and Surgery: single center prevalence study in Sassari (Italy)]. / Contaminazioni microbiche di superfici di frequente contatto in reparti di medicina e chirurgia: studio monocentrico di prevalenza a Sassari.

INTRODUCTION: Healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) represent a clinical and public health problem worldwide. Microbial transmission can frequently occurs between patients or between patients and health-care workers; however, several devices and surfaces could act as reservoir and source of microorganisms. Aim of this cross-sectional study was to show the microbial contamination of devices or surfaces located in the departments of Medicine and Surgery of an Italian University Hospital. METHODS: Swabs were used to sample devices (keyboards, phones) and surfaces (door handles, water closed, light switches), at two different time-points. Samples were then evaluated in the UOC Hygiene and Preventive Medicine laboratory of the same University Hospital. RESULTS: 189 swabs were collected, 95 (53.3%) from the Medicine and 94 (49.7%) from the Surgery Department. The bacterial contamination prevalence was 42.9%, significantly higher in the Medicine than in the Surgery Department (51.6% vs 34%; p=0.015). A greater contamination was observed in water closed (22/36, 61.1%), phones (22/40, 55%), and keyboards of personal computers (18/36, 51.4%; p<0.001). No statistical differences were detected in the contamination rates when the different time-points were compared, as well as in the isolation rate of pathogenic bacterial strains. DISCUSSION: This survey highlights the potential role of devices and surfaces in the HAI pathogenesis. Further longitudinal and analytical studies might better assess the HAI risk associated with bacterial contamination in nosocomial settings.