MMWR News Synopsis for April 3, 2014

CDC Grand Rounds: Global Tobacco Control

CDC Media Relations
404-639-3286

Less than $1 billion is spent globally on tobacco control, with 97 percent of the spending done by high-income countries. If the rate of tobacco use remains unchanged, it will mostly impact persons in low-income and middle-income countries with high population densities. During the 20th century, use of tobacco products contributed to 100 million deaths worldwide.  One-third to a half of lifetime users die from tobacco products. Smokers die an average of 14 years earlier than nonsmokers. From 1880 to 2009, global consumption of cigarettes increased from an estimated 10 billion cigarettes to approximately 5.9 trillion cigarettes. If current trends persist, by 2030 tobacco use will result in approximately 8 million deaths worldwide, annually. Every death from tobacco products is preventable.A modest decline in smoking prevalence from 25 to 20 percent, achieved through broader implementation of strategies proven effective in combatting tobacco, could prevent 100 million global deaths by the year 2099.

National Capacity for Surveillance, Prevention, and Control of West Nile Virus and Other Arbovirus Infections — United States, 2004 and 2012

Sara D. Ramey, M.Ed.
Director of Marketing & Communications
Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists
(770) 458-3811
sramey@cste.org

Each state and local health department needs to evaluate its arbovirus surveillance system to assure it is sufficient to detect West Nile virus and other possible arboviral threats in time enough to recognize an outbreak and to know which arboviruses are causing disease in their jurisdiction. After WNV first appeared in the United States, federal funding was distributed through CDC to all state and six major cities and counties to build capacity for WNV surveillance and control. By 2004, an assessment conducted by the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists found that all funding recipients had developed full WNV surveillance and control programs. Since 2006, federal funding decreased 61 percent despite WNV causing as much mortality in 2012 as it did in 2003, the previous peak morbidity season. A follow-up CSTE assessment in 2013 found that the human disease and mosquito surveillance, and laboratory testing capacity built with federal funding had eroded substantially, with some states having greatly reduced ability to rapidly detect changes in WNV and other arboviral activity to initiate prevention measures.

Progress Toward Measles Preelimination — African Region, 2011–2012

CDC Media Relations
404-639-3286

To achieve the measles elimination target in the African region by 2020, efforts must be intensified at the global and country levels to implement strategies quickly that close gaps in population immunity and increase routine vaccination services.The number of reported measles cases in the African region decreased during 2011–2012, declining from 194,364 in 2011 to 106,052 in 2012. By the end of 2012, the first dose of measles vaccine coverage in the region was 73 percent. Despite this progress, the region fell short of the 2012 measles preelimination goal set by the 46 countries of the World Health Organization African region. A new target was set for the region for 2020. To achieve measles elimination by then, resource mobilization efforts must be intensified at the global and country levels to implement effective strategies.

Notes from the Field

• Multistate Outbreak of Listeriosis Linked to Soft-Ripened Cheese — United States, 2013
• Calls to Poison Centers for Exposures to Electronic Cigarettes — United States, September 2010–February 2014

 

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U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES