Quoted in ProMED:

Visceral leishmaniasis was 1st described in Brazil in 1934 and 1st reported from Rio de Janeiro state in 1977.

90 percent of cases are reported from the north (mouth of the Amazon) and eastern regions. The disease is endemic to Alagoas, Bahia, Ceara, Espirito Santo, Goias, Maranhao, Mato Grosso do Sul, Minas Gerais, Para, Paraiba, Pernambuco, Piaui, Rio Grande do Norte, Roraima and Sergipe. Urban transmission was 1st reported in 1981, from Teresina (Piaui State). A large focus extends from Roraima into Venezuela and Guyana.

The reported incidence has increased from 164 cases (35 fatal) in 1980 to 3220 (223 fatal) in 2005; see graph . A total of 44 289 cases were reported during 1980 to 2000, 39 823 of these from the northeast. Brazil accounts for over 90 percent of cases in the New World.
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We’re continuing our progress in making it easier to find the information you’re looking for in GIDEON with minimal effort. We have added a new feature in the Microbiology module that link relevant organisms to their drug susceptibility and appropriate vaccines as demonstrated by the highlighted links in this screen shot of the Vibrio Cholerae general tab:

These new links are in addition to links added in the past connecting between disease organisms to microbiology and typical therapy to drugs, vaccines and pathogens.
For example see the links from the Anthrax disease general information tab screen shot below, to the Microbiology organism (Bacillus anthracis), Therapy (eg: Ciprofloxacin) and Anthrax vaccine:

Traditionally GIDEON has been used by Travel Medicine practitioners, who have loved the detailed country information for the various diseases affecting travelers. Their main suggestion was to add more pre-travel information that could be provided to travelers at consultations. We’re happy to announce that we listened and have now launched a new Travel tab in the Epidemiology module.

The general pre-travel information is provided by region and is divided into Professional and Traveler sections. Professional is for health practitioners and is based on content from the CDC Yellow book. Links are provided directly to relevant disease information in GIDEON. Traveler is traveler friendly content from the CDC Traveler’s health destination guide. Links are provided to additional information from the CDC.
The Country section displays the list of all the relevant diseases that have additional information for travelers to the selected country. The content is presented briefly as a “mouse over” and can be accessed more thoroughly by linking to actual country note for the specific disease.

As with all the information in GIDEON, you can print and email each section information. This will be very useful to serve your travelers that want a hard copy of the information or a soft copy via email.

“Traveling with GIDEON” (video) is a new case of the month that provides examples of how to use the Travel tab.

As a result of feedback from our users, we’ve added ICD9 and ICD10 codes to Diagnosis symptoms and the Epidemiology diseases.

In the Diagnosis module, the mouse-over description for symptoms will display the code, if available. For example, to the left is the description for “Jaundice”.

The General tab of diseases in Epidemiology will display the ICD9 and ICD10 codes below the list of disease synonyms. Synonyms and codes for Babesiosis:

The codes have been integrated both into diagnosis and text search. So if you want to diagnose an infectious disease based on the ICD9 and/or ICD10 codes for symptoms, just enter them in diagnosis search and click the button.

Likewise if you’re searching for a disease based on the ICD9 or ICD10 code, enter the code in text search and click.

Another post in ProMED from Steve describing Cryptosporidiosis in Ireland with a graph comparing rates in neighboring regions:

Background data:
Rates of Cryptosporiosis in Ireland and adjacent countries have been similar since the 1980’s.

Cryptosporidiosis became a notifiable disease in Ireland in January 2004, with 61 percent of cases having been reported during April to June [?2004]. A total of 5 outbreaks (25 outbreak cases) was reported in 2004. A total of 6 outbreaks (49 outbreak cases) was reported in 2005.

Prevalence surveys:
4 percent of gastroenteritis among children.
4 percent of diarrhea requiring hospitalization among Dublin Children 1987.
149 cases were reported among children below age 2 years in 2002; 106 in 2003.
64 patients were hospitalized for cryptosporidiosis in 1999; 57 in 2000; 65 in
2001; 53 in 2002. 70 cases (18 per 100 000) were reported by the South-Eastern Health Board in 2001. 66 cases (19 per 100 000) were reported by the Western Health Board in 2001.

Infected local shellfish species:
_Mytilus edulis_ (Common mussel) in the Sligo Area
_Dreissena polymorpha_ (Zebra mussel) in the Shannon River drainage area.

Notable outbreaks:
2002 - Outbreaks (3 outbreaks, 65 cases) were reported, including a water-borne outbreak more than 32 cases) in the Midland region.
2005 - An outbreak (31 cases) in the western region was associated with contaminated water.
2007 - An outbreak (125 cases) was reported in Galway.

Northern Ireland:
Notable outbreaks:
2000 - An outbreak (121 confirmed cases) was reported - with most cases in the County Antrim and County Down towns of Lisburn and Bangor.
2001 - An outbreak (230 confirmed cases) was reported in Belfast - source unknown.
2001 - An outbreak (57 cases) was reported in Ulster - source unknown.
2001 - An outbreak (110 cases) was reported in Eastern Health Board - ascribed to contamination of water from the Dunmore treatment facility.
2003 - An outbreak (391 cases) was reported among British tourists at a hotel in Majorca - 179 from England and Wales, 170 from Scotland and 42 from Northern Ireland.
2004 - An outbreak (14 cases) was reported in the Midland Health Board - ascribed to a contaminated water supply.

Regarding the recent outbreak in Apulia, gradual decreases in measles rates may reflect the fact that vaccine coverage for Italy has exceded 80% only since 2002. Click on graph:
Outbreaks of measles in Italy:
1996 to 1997 - An outbreak (1,642 cases seen at one hospital) was reported in Palermo.
2002 - An outbreak (24,000 clinical cases; 368 hospitalized; 13 encephalitis; 3 fatal) was reported in Campania. The rate among children below age 15 years was 3,750 per 100,000.
2003 - An outbreak (1,217 cases) was reported in Calabria and Puglia.
2003 - An outbreak (26 cases) was reported in South Tyrol.
2006 - An outbreak (40 cases) was reported in Grosseto.
2006 - Outbreaks (187 cases in 3 outbreaks) were reported in the Roma / Sinti populations of South Tyrol (17 cases), Sardinia (9 cases) and Lazio (161 cases).

You can search for keywords in GIDEON using the text search feature. Searches case of the month provides some examples, available as a video as well.

Maps in the Epidemiology module have been improved once again. For some diseases, reporting data are sufficiently accurate and comprehensive to allow for a more detailed map based on relative disease incidence from country to country. This provides for a great snapshot of the global status of theses diseases. See the Case of the Month: Getting the most out of maps.

GIDEON has always emphasized ease of use by allowing complete usage without any need for a keyboard by only using a mouse. Today we broke our rule to enable text search through GIDEON. As search has become more popular, it has become the user experience many people feel comfortable with when using the web.
Search will initially display results from our Epidemiology and Therapy modules and will extend to all content in GIDEON, including Diagnosis. See how easy it is to search with GIDEON.

In recent months, we have collated all survey data for every individual disease country note into a standardized modular format. A unique listing will present all published surveys of disease prevalence, seropositivity data, parasite infestation rates, etc for … AIDS, Ascariasis … Hepatitis A, Hookworm … Lyme disease …. Q-fever … Syphilis … and all other diseases in GIDEON.
See some examples of the Surveys feature.

The Outbreaks feature chronologically lists all key outbreaks for all relevant diseases. These lists document outbreaks by year and country, and are updated every week.

See list of over 5,000 outbreaks.

The BioTerror indicator feature displays an indicator next to potential bio-terror diseases in any differential diagnosis.

This feature extends the Bio-terrorism module functionality to alert users that may not suspect Bio-terrorism when performing a diagnosis.