Ring vaccination and vector control as control strategies for potential yellow fever outbreak in an Asian city.

Background: Yellow Fever (YF) importation remains an active risk to Southeast Asia. This study aims to determine the effectiveness of vector control and ring vaccination as containment strategies.

Methods: We modelled a YF outbreak in Singapore over 1 year using a metapopulation vector-host spatial model to explore the impact of a potential epidemic and intervention effectiveness.

Is Southeast Asia and the Western Pacific ready for potential monkeypox virus outbreaks?

The new variant of the monkeypox virus (MPXV) clade Ib has recently spread to other African countries outside the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), prompting the World Health Organisation to declare the outbreak as a public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC). This comes just two years after the initial PHEIC that was issued for the clade IIb outbreaks. Compared to the clade IIb outbreaks, clade Ib shows a demographic shift, including higher case fatality rates for younger individuals, indicating a possibility of additional transmission pathways through heterosexual and household contacts.

Effectiveness of different border control strategies for reducing mpox importation risk: a modelling study.

Background: The Clade Ib monkeypox virus can be more transmissible through non-sexual routes compared to the previous Clade IIb strain. With imported cases sporadically reported globally, concerns have emerged about the potential of widespread transmission in the general community after importation events. Border control measures, such as screening and quarantining of arriving travellers, may help mitigate this risk and prevent localised outbreaks in the event of global spread.

Evaluating strategies for global respiratory pandemic control at ports: a modelling study.

Background: Heavy reliance on container shipping during the COVID-19 pandemic with lockdown implementation and air travel bans placed substantial pressure on shipping crews and ports. Long waiting times at ports, substantial economic losses and massive supply chain disruption of essential and medical goods were observed. To minimise this for future pandemic preparedness, we explore the use of quarantining and testing of crews preboarding instead of quarantining at port calls or during voyages.

The need for pre-emptive control strategies for mpox in Asia and Oceania.

Introduction: The transmission dynamics of the recent mpox outbreak highlights the lack of infrastructure available to rapidly respond to novel STI outbreaks, of which Asia and Oceania remains particularly susceptible. Here, we simulate outbreaks in this setting and propose the use of pre-emptive vaccination within the men who have sex with men (MSM) community before the arrival and establishment of the virus.

Materials And Methods: Using data driven heterogeneous sexual contact networks, we simulated outbreaks of mpox in Singapore, Hong Kong, and Sydney.