Kiyosu Taniguchi

BioCaster: detecting public health rumors with a Web-based text mining system

Summary: BioCaster is an ontology-based text mining system for detecting and tracking the distribution of infectious disease outbreaks from linguistic signals on the Web. The system continuously analyzes documents reported from over 1700 RSS feeds, classifies them for topical relevance and plots them onto a Google map using geocoded information. The background knowledge for bridging the gap between Laymans terms and formal-coding systems is contained in the freely available BioCaster ontology which includes information in eight languages focused on the epidemiological role of pathogens as well as geographical locations with their latitudes/longitudes. The system consists of four main stages: topic classification, named entity recognition (NER), disease/location detection and event recognition. Higher order event analysis is used to detect more precisely specified warning signals that can then be notified to registered users via email alerts. Evaluation of the system for topic recognition and entity identification is conducted on a gold standard corpus of annotated news articles. Availability: The BioCaster map and ontology are freely available via a web portal at http://www.biocaster.org. Contact: collier@nii.ac.jp

Influenza surveillance system of Japan and acute encephalitis and encephalopathy in the influenza season

Abstract Aim: To understand the situation of influenza epidemics and neurologic complications during the influenza season in Japan.

Bacillus anthracis incident, Kameido, Tokyo, 1993.

In July 1993, a liquid suspension of Bacillus anthracis was aerosolized from the roof of an eight-story building in Kameido, Tokyo, Japan, by the religious group Aum Shinrikyo. During 1999 to 2001, microbiologic tests were conducted on a liquid environmental sample originally collected during the 1993 incident. Nonencapsulated isolates of B. anthracis were cultured from the liquid. Multiple-locus, variable-number tandem repeat analysis found all isolates to be identical to a strain used in Japan to vaccinate animals against anthrax, which was consistent with the Aum Shinrikyo members’ testimony about the strain source. In 1999, a retrospective case-detection survey was conducted to identify potential human anthrax cases associated with the incident, but none were found. The use of an attenuated B. anthracis strain, low spore concentrations, ineffective dispersal, a clogged spray device, and inactivation of the spores by sunlight are all likely contributing factors to the lack of human cases.

Geographic and temporal trends in influenzalike illness, Japan, 1992-1999.

Kriging analysis improved visualization and understanding of trends in seasonal ILI activity in Japan.

Gelatin-induced T-cell activation in children with nonanaphylactic-type reactions to vaccines containing gelatin.

BACKGROUND Many cases of anaphylactic or nonanaphylactic reactions have been reported to measles-mumps-rubella vaccine or its component vaccines that contain gelatin as a stabilizer. Increased levels of specific IgE antibodies to gelatin have been reported in children with anaphylactic reactions. However, IgE is not increased in cases of nonanaphylactic reaction, and the mechanisms of the reaction are still controversial. OBJECTIVE The study was aimed to elucidate the relationship between nonanaphylactic reaction and gelatin. METHODS We investigated in vitro induction of activated memory helper T cells (CD4(+ )CD25(+ )CD45RO+ cells) in response to gelatin in children with nonanaphylactic reactions to vaccines containing gelatin. RESULTS In patients with delayed-type sensitivity to gelatin confirmed with a positive skin test response, CD4(+ )CD25(+ )CD45RO+ cells were significantly more strongly induced in culture containing gelatin than in control cultures. However, there was no significant difference between cultures with gelatin and those with control solvent in patients without reactions after vaccination. Of 76 patients with nonanaphylactic reactions after immunization with vaccine containing gelatin, 61 had an increased lymphocyte stimulation index to gelatin versus control children. CONCLUSION These results suggest the possibility that nonanaphylactic reactions to gelatin-containing vaccine in Japan might be mediated by delayed hypersensitivity reactions against gelatin.

Transmission of Bordetella holmesii during Pertussis Outbreak, Japan

We describe the epidemiology of a pertussis outbreak in Japan in 2010–2011 and Bordetella holmesii transmission. Six patients were infected; 4 patients were students and a teacher at the same junior high school. Epidemiologic links were found between 5 patients. B. holmesii may have been transmitted from person to person.

Serum Cytokine and Chemokine Profiles in Neonates With Meconium Aspiration Syndrome

OBJECTIVES. Various inflammatory cytokines and chemokines are thought to be associated with the pathophysiology of meconium aspiration syndrome. To clarify any such association, we compared various serum cytokine and chemokine profiles in patients with and without meconium aspiration syndrome. PATIENTS AND METHODS. Using a highly sensitive fluorescence microsphere method, 17 types of cytokines and chemokines in sera were measured in 11 neonatal patients with meconium aspiration syndrome, 16 neonatal patients without meconium aspiration syndrome, and 9 healthy children. RESULTS. The concentrations of 8 types of proinflammatory cytokines and chemokines were significantly higher in the meconium aspiration syndrome group than in healthy controls: interleukin-1β, interleukin-6, interleukin-8, granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor, granulocyte colony-stimulating factor, interferon-γ, macrophage inflammatory protein-1β, and tumor necrosis factor-α. Six types of proinflammatory cytokines and chemokines were significantly higher in the meconium aspiration syndrome group than in the nonmeconium aspiration syndrome group: interleukin-6, interleukin-8, granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor, granulocyte colony-stimulating factor, interferon-γ, and tumor necrosis factor-α. Serum concentrations of interleukin-10 (anti-inflammatory cytokine) in the meconium aspiration syndrome group were higher than those in both the nonmeconium aspiration syndrome group and healthy children group (P = .007 and 0.001, respectively). CONCLUSIONS. Most types of proinflammatory cytokines and chemokines in sera of neonates with meconium aspiration syndrome were higher than those without meconium aspiration syndrome, giving support to the suggestion that elevated levels are associated with the pathogenesis of meconium aspiration syndrome.

Epidemics of Vector-borne Diseases Observed in Infectious Disease Surveillance in Japan, 2000-2005

BACKGROUND Observing the epidemics of vector-borne diseases is important. One or more cases of 6 vector-borne diseases were reported to the National Epidemiological Surveillance of Infectious Diseases in Japan in 2000-2005. METHODS The reports of those cases were available. The incidence was observed by region of acquired infection, prefecture reporting, and week and year of diagnosis. RESULTS The incidence rate per year per 1,000,000 population was 0.36 for dengue fever, 0.04 for Japanese encephalitis, 0.38 for Japanese spotted fever, 0.08 for Lyme disease, 0.74 for malaria, and 3.50 for scrub typhus. There were no cases of dengue fever or malaria derived from domestic infections. The yearly incidence rate increased for dengue fever and Japanese spotted fever, and declined for malaria and scrub typhus. The proportion of cases reported in Tokyo was 44% for dengue fever and 37% for malaria. The number of prefectures reporting one or more cases of Japanese spotted fever increased in western Japan. The cases of scrub typhus increased in autumn-winter in prefectures of eastern Japan, and increased both in autumn-winter and spring in western prefectures. CONCLUSIONS The study reveals the epidemiologic features of both temporal and geographic distributions of cases of 6 vector-borne diseases in Japan, 2000-2005.

Surveillance of Adenovirus D in patients with epidemic keratoconjunctivitis from Fukui Prefecture, Japan, 1995–2010

Human adenoviruses species D (HAdV‐D) are known to cause severe epidemic keratoconjunctivitis. However, the isolation rate of HAdV‐D is not high, because HAdV‐D is usually slow to propagate. Although new types of HAdV‐D have been reported, accurate surveillance has not been performed because of difficulties in culturing the viruses and lack of a practical identification method. In this study, HAdV‐Ds were detected and identified from patients with epidemic keratoconjunctivitis in the Fukui Prefecture during 1995–2010 by PCR, loop‐mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) of DNA, and conventional virus isolation and neutralization tests. All samples were subjected to culture and PCR and LAMP. A total of 124 strains of HAdV‐D were detected from 157 patients with epidemic keratoconjunctivitis. The strains consisted of the following types: D8 (n = 8), D19 (n = 4), D37 (n = 40), D53 (n = 5), D54 (n = 66), and D56 (n = 1). Among these, D53, D54, and D56 are new types that have been reported recently. The results of this study demonstrated that new types of HAdV‐D caused epidemic keratoconjunctivitis during 1995–2010, and included an outbreak of keratoconjunctivitis caused by HAdV‐D54. The LAMP method was able to detect and identify HAdV‐D53 and HAdV–D54 in 1 hr, and may therefore be applicable for use at the bedside. J. Med. Virol. 84:81–86, 2011.

Real-time prescription surveillance and its application to monitoring seasonal influenza activity in Japan

Background Real-time surveillance is fundamental for effective control of disease outbreaks, but the official sentinel surveillance in Japan collects information related to disease activity only weekly and updates it with a 1-week time lag. Objective To report on a prescription surveillance system using electronic records related to prescription drugs that was started in 2008 in Japan, and to evaluate the surveillance system for monitoring influenza activity during the 2009–2010 and 2010–2011 influenza seasons. Methods We developed an automatic surveillance system using electronic records of prescription drug purchases collected from 5275 pharmacies through the application service provider’s medical claims service. We then applied the system to monitoring influenza activity during the 2009–2010 and 2010–2011 influenza seasons. The surveillance system collected information related to drugs and patients directly and automatically from the electronic prescription record system, and estimated the number of influenza cases based on the number of prescriptions of anti-influenza virus medication. Then it shared the information related to influenza activity through the Internet with the public on a daily basis. Results During the 2009–2010 influenza season, the number of influenza patients estimated by the prescription surveillance system between the 28th week of 2009 and the 12th week of 2010 was 9,234,289. In the 2010–2011 influenza season, the number of influenza patients between the 36th week of 2010 and the 12th week of 2011 was 7,153,437. The estimated number of influenza cases was highly correlated with that predicted by the official sentinel surveillance (r = .992, P < .001 for 2009–2010; r = .972, P < .001 for 2010–2011), indicating that the prescription surveillance system produced a good approximation of activity patterns. Conclusions Our prescription surveillance system presents great potential for monitoring influenza activity and for providing early detection of infectious disease outbreaks.