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   Since 2002, Search for Common Ground has been facilitating regional cooperation against the threat posed by biological and chemical incidents. To deal with the biological threat, we formed the Middle East Consortium on Infectious Disease Surveillance (MECIDS), through which the Ministries of Health of Israel, Jordan, and the Palestinian Authority will share data about disease outbreaks, whether naturally or deliberately caused.  In the framework of MECIDS, we are establishing national laboratory-based   surveillance networks for foodborne diseases in Jordan, Israel, and Palestine that will conduct surveillance according to harmonized methodology, will have a common platform of communication, data sharing and analysis, and will discuss intervention steps when needed. Our first epidemiology training was conducted in Istanbul in September followed by a course on laboratory skills, which was hosted by the Israeli Ministry of Health. (See article below).  MECIDS partners have begun to make improvements to their disease monitoring systems. Against the background of the close proximity among Jordan, Israel, and Palestine, and a level of food exchange that hopefully will increase in the near future, we anticipate that the significant upgrade in the methods of surveillance will play an important role in the  prevention and control of occurrence and transmission of foodborne diseases in the region.

    Robert Pelletreaup, Co-Director, Search for Common Ground in the Middle East         meets Palestinian presedent Abu Mazen.

Events:

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MECIDS

Salmonella Identification Course

   Ten Palestinian, Jordanian, and Israeli health professionals spent a week together learning new laboratory techniques in a salmonella identification workshop. This is the second course sponsored by MECIDS but the first to be held in the region.  Four Palestinians, three Jordanians, and three Israelis with backgrounds in microbiology, laboratory science, and public health received hands-on training as well as lectures from specialists at the Jerusalem Central Laboratory of the Israeli Ministry of Health, on laboratory techniques for identifying Salmonella.  more

Jordan

No more typhoid in Deir Alla.

by: Reem Halasa

Wednesday, February 2, 2005

From:  the Jordan Times

   AMMAN . Three months after the first case of typhoid was reported in Deir Alla, health officials announced that no new cases had been registered since Jan.12, and declared the area free of the disease. Despite this, the Ministry of Health is to continue with its awareness campaigns on the prevention of typhoid and the importance of proper hygiene, according to Ali Assad, assistant secretary general for primary health services. The authorities recorded 91 cases of patients presenting with typhoid symptoms over the past three months. (Click here for more information)

Palistine

Activities within Palestine

   On March 24, 2005 a workshop on salmonellosis was held in Gaza.  Palestinian health professionals gave several lectures on the epidemiology, pathophysiology, survelliance, and methods of diagnosis for salmonella.  In addition, a workshop on salmonellosis was held in Bethlehem in collaboration with Medical Association on Thursday March 3, 2005. In the future, Palestinian health officials plan to conduct a survey to measure the prevalence among the poultry before and after slaughtering to evaluate the rate of contamination in slaughterhouses.  (Click here for more information)

Samples tested for Salmonella in Palestine:

Israel

Risk Factors for Enteric Infections Caused by Salmonella Virchow among young children in Israel: A Matched Case Control Study

   The Israeli MECIDS participants plan to conduct a study on risk factors for Salmonella Virchow.  An increase in Salmonella Virchow isolates has been observed in the last few years in Israel. Salmonella Virchow is ranked second or third among all Salmonella serotypes isolates in Israel in the last years.

Aim: To identify the risk factors for enteric infections associated with S. Virchow among young children in Israel.

Importance: Identifying risk factors associated with S. Virchow salmonellosis will help to concentrate preventive interventions to decrease the extent of morbidity related to this pathogen in Israel.

Research methods: A matched case control study in which potential risk factors for morbidity due to this serotype will be analyzed. Cases will be defined as children aged 0-4 years suffering from diarrhea and having their stool sample culture-positive for S. Virchow. (Click here for more information)

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Publications:

   The World Health Organization magazine Bridges published an article wrote by Gayle Meyers, Director for the MECIDS project, about an interventional field epidemiology course for Palestinian, Jordanian and Israeli health workers that we put on in Istanbul in September. For more details about the article go to www.sfcg.org.

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