Department of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences Faculty Papers

Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://digital.lib.washington.edu/handle/1773/15631

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Wildfire Smoke Action Plan for Children with Asthma
(2025-09-11) Crocker, Mary
Wildfires are increasing in frequency and severity over time, and exposure to wildfire smoke (WFS) has been linked to adverse outcomes children with asthma. Public health agencies urge parents to check the air quality index (AQI) and take action to reduce their child’s exposure to WFS, but this guidance is inconsistently implemented. After gathering input from parents of children with asthma in Washington State, ambulatory pediatric nurses, public health practitioners, environmental scientists, and medical experts, we created the Wildfire Smoke Action Plan (WFS-AP). This tool is intended to help parents prepare for WFS season and act on poor air quality. It is designed to be delivered by nurses in pediatric ambulatory care settings, but can also be applicable in community-based or school settings. English and Spanish versions are included.
High-sensitivity detection of Mycobacterium tuberculosis DNA in tongue swab samples
(2024-12-20) Olson, Alaina M.; Wood, Rachel C.; Weigel, Kris M.; Yan, Alexander J.; Lochner, Katherine A.; Dragovich, Rane B.; Luabeya, Angelique K.; Yager, Paul; Hatherill, Mark; Cangelosi, Gerard A.
Tongue swab (TS) sampling combined with quantitative PCR (qPCR) to detect Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) DNA is a promising alternative to sputum testing for tuberculosis (TB) diagnosis. In prior studies, the sensitivity of tongue swabbing has usually been lower than sputum. In this study, we evaluated two strategies to improve sensitivity. In one, centrifugation was used to concentrate tongue dorsum bacteria from 2 mL suspensions eluted from high-capacity foam swab samples. The pellets were resuspended as 500 μL suspensions, and then mechanically lysed prior to dual-target qPCR to detect MTB insertion elements IS6110 and IS1081. Fractionation experiments demonstrated that most of the MTB DNA signal in clinical swab samples (99.22% ± 1.46%) was present in the sedimentable fraction. When applied to archived foam swabs collected from 124 South Africans with presumptive TB, this strategy exhibited 83% sensitivity (71/86) and 100% specificity (38/38) relative to sputum microbiological reference standard (MRS; sputum culture and/or Xpert Ultra). The second strategy used sequence-specific magnetic capture (SSMaC) to concentrate DNA released from MTB cells. This protocol was evaluated on archived Copan FLOQSwabs flocked swab samples collected from 128 South African participants with presumptive TB. Material eluted into 500 μL buffer was mechanically lysed. The suspensions were digested by proteinase K, hybridized to biotinylated dual-target oligonucleotide probes, and then concentrated ~20-fold using magnetic separation. Upon dual-target qPCR testing of concentrates, this strategy exhibited 90% sensitivity (83/92) and 97% specificity (35/36) relative to sputum MRS. These results point the way toward automatable, high-sensitivity methods for detecting MTB DNA in TS.
Rationale and design for the International PANS Registry (IPR; pediatric acute-onset neuropsychiatric syndrome)
(2023) Masterson, Erin E.; Gavin, Jessica M.
The International PANS Registry (IPR) is the first centralized, epidemiologic database of children with Pediatric Acute-Onset Neuropsychiatric Syndrome (PANS) and PANS-like features and their siblings. PANS is a relatively new umbrella syndrome that lacks diagnostic biomarkers and is characterized by a set of working criteria. The failure to find a diagnostic biomarker is likely due to underpowered studies and inherent biological heterogeneity within PANS. Until the IPR was established, a critical barrier to large-scale longitudinal studies had been the absence of a large-scale epidemiologic study and a centralized database of children with PANS and PANS-like features. The IPR was created to serve as a translational health tool to accelerate research on the broad spectrum of complex pediatric neuroimmune conditions with the long-term goal of enabling a paradigm shift in this field from symptom-based evaluation and treatment towards biology-based diagnoses, treatments, screening, and surveillance. To date, the IPR has registered 1,666 families (3,247 children) and is the largest database in the world that gathers in-depth information on children with PANS and PANS-like features and their siblings. Enrollment in the IPR is open and ongoing; longitudinal follow up is planned. Participating families enroll their children with PANS and PANS-like features and their healthy siblings in the IPR via an online survey platform. The selection criteria for IPR enrollment are intentionally less restrictive than the current working criteria for PANS to generate a large recruitment pool and enable study of the broad spectrum of PANS-like conditions. The IPR is designed to enable ancillary study recruitment based on detailed selection criteria and to grow and expand in scope in the future. The IPR team is committed to data sharing and invites collaborators who will leverage existing data from the IPR database and extend knowledge in an area beyond the original scope of the IPR.
Dynamics of a hippocampal neuronal ensemble encoding trace fear memory revealed by in vivo Ca2+ imaging
(2019-06-10) Zhang, Liang; Chen, Xuanmao; Sindreu, Carlos; Lu, Song; Storm, Daniel R.; Zweifel, Larry S.; Xia, Zhengui
Although the biochemical signaling events in area CA1 of the hippocampus underlying memory acquisition, consolidation, retrieval, and extinction have been extensively studied, little is known about the activity dynamics of hippocampal neurons in CA1 during Pavlovian fear conditioning. Here, we use fiber-optic confocal microscopy coupled with the calcium indicator GCaMP6m to monitor neuron activity in freely moving mice during trace fear conditioning. We show that the activity of a group of CA1 neurons increases not only after the stimulus presentations, but also during the stimulus-free trace period when the conditioned mice exhibit a high level of freezing behavior. Therefore, we designate these cells “trace cells”. Interestingly, the activity of the trace cells increases in response to the conditioned stimuli during memory retrieval but diminishes during memory extinction. Importantly, the dynamics of neuron activity exhibit a high degree of correlation with the freezing behavior of the mice, suggesting that a neuronal ensemble responsible for encoding the trace fear memory is repeatedly reactivated during memory retrieval and later extinguished during memory extinction.
FIELD MANUAL For Data Collectors at the facility level
(2012-04-23) Stover, Bert; Lubega, Flavia; Namubiru, Aidah; Bakengesa, Evelyn; Luboga, Samuel Abimerech; Makumbi, Frederick; Kiwanuka, Noah; Ndizihiwe, Assay; Mukooyo, Eddie; Hurley, Erin; Lim, Travis; Borse Nagesh; Bernhardt, James; Wood, Angela; Sheppard, Lianne; Barnhart, Scott; Hagopian, Amy; Uganda Ministry of Health; U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; Makerere University
The US Government’s PEPFAR program has invested more than $30 billion in the care, treatment and prevention of HIV AIDS. While many studies show benefit in controlling the epidemic, HIV / AIDS is but one of many illnesses that make up the total burden of illness in these countries. There are few studies that have looked at whether this large sum of money has benefited or harmed other aspects of the health system. For example, has the focus on HIV AIDS allowed for much of the health worker training to “spill over” and benefit patients with other diseases? Or, has the massive investment lead to a shifting of health care workers away from care of patients with non-HIV diseases. There are some key questions that are important in understanding how rapid scale-up of HIV services affect non-targeted services and the health system at different levels in Uganda.
The coastal environment and human health: microbial indicators, pathogens, sentinels and reservoirs
(2008) Stewart, Jill R.; Gast, Rebecca J.; Fujioka, Roger S.; Solo-Gabriele, Helena M.; Meschke, Scott; Amaral-Zeettler, Linda A.; del Castillo, Erika; Polz, Martin F.; Collier, Tracy K.; Strom, Mark S.; Sinigalliano, Christopher D.; Moeller, Peter D. R.; Holland, A. Fredrick
Innovative research relating oceans and human health is advancing our understanding of diseasecausing organisms in coastal ecosystems. Novel techniques are elucidating the loading, transport and fate of pathogens in coastal ecosystems, and identifying sources of contamination. This research is facilitating improved risk assessments for seafood consumers and those who use the oceans for recreation. A number of challenges still remain and define future directions of research and public policy. Sample processing and molecular detection techniques need to be advanced to allow rapid and specific identification of microbes of public health concern from complex environmental samples. Water quality standards need to be updated to more accurately reflect health risks and to provide managers with improved tools for decision-making. Greater discrimination of virulent versus harmless microbes is needed to identify environmental reservoirs of pathogens and factors leading to human infections. Investigations must include examination of microbial community dynamics that may be important from a human health perspective. Further research is needed to evaluate the ecology of non-enteric water-transmitted diseases. Sentinels should also be established and monitored, providing early warning of dangers to ecosystem health. Taken together, this effort will provide more reliable information about public health risks associated with beaches and seafood consumption, and how human activities can affect their exposure to diseasecausing organisms from the oceans.
Linking the oceans to public health: current efforts and future directions
(2008) Kite-Powell, Hauke L.; Fleming, Lora E.; Backer, Lorraine C.; Faustman, Elaine M.; Hoagland, Porter; Tsuchiya, Ami; Younglove, Lisa R.; Wilcox, Bruce A.; Gast, Rebecca J.
We review the major linkages between the oceans and public health, focusing on exposures and potential health effects due to anthropogenic and natural factors including: harmful algal blooms, microbes, and chemical pollutants in the oceans; consumption of seafood; and flooding events. We summarize briefly the current state of knowledge about public health effects and their economic consequences; and we discuss priorities for future research. We find that: - There are numerous connections between the oceans, human activities, and human health that result in both positive and negative exposures and health effects (risks and benefits); and the study of these connections comprises a new interdisciplinary area, "oceans and human health." - The state of present knowledge about the linkages between oceans and public health varies. Some risks, such as the acute health effects caused by toxins associated with shellfish poisoning and red tide, are relatively well understood. Other risks, such as those posed by chronic exposure to many anthropogenic chemicals, pathogens, and naturally occurring toxins in coastal waters, are less well quantified. Even where there is a good understanding of the mechanism for health effects, good epidemiological data are often lacking. Solid data on economic and social consequences of these linkages are also lacking in most cases. - The design of management measures to address these risks must take into account the complexities of human response to warnings and other guidance, and the economic tradeoffs among different risks and benefits. Future research in oceans and human health to address public health risks associated with marine pathogens and toxins, and with marine dimensions of global change, should include epidemiological, behavioral, and economic components to ensure that resulting management measures incorporate effective economic and risk/benefit tradeoffs.

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