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Microbial pathogens in urban floodwaters pose risks to human health, potentially causing diseases such as diarrhea. However, the disease burden related to urban traffic exposure from citizens passing through floodwaters is not easily quantified and therefore not included in many studies. Notably, this problem has received little attention in low‐to‐middle‐income countries, with frequent flood events and the heavy diarrheal disease burden. This article calculates the infection risks and disease burden, considering traffic associated with exposure to floodwater contaminated with rotavirus for the first time in Ninh Kieu District, Can Tho city. Can Tho city in the Vietnamese Mekong Delta is well known to have many flood events every year, with many diarrheal cases during the flood season. The methodology comprises two steps. First, we applied quantitative microbial risk assessment that proposes the inclusion of exposure to traffic due to rotavirus in floodwater. Second, the disease burden was expressed in disability‐adjusted life years (DALYs). The exposed groups are child pedestrians, adult pedestrians, motorcyclists, and cyclists. We used video footage to monitor the traffic. The results show that total DALYs per flood event were 1.35 × 104 for 63,390 exposed people (i.e., 2129 DALYs per 10,000 cases). Motorcyclists are the strongest contributors to the DALYs (95%), followed by cyclists (2.8%), adult pedestrians (2%), and child pedestrians (0.2%). The population in Ninh Kieu District may suffer from waterborne diseases through traffic activities during flooding times. Our approach can be applied in other areas worldwide and helps identify main risk groups and focus areas for interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Streptococcus suis infections are an emerging zoonotic agent causing severe disease in humans and a major pig pathogen worldwide. We investigated the colonization of S. suis in healthy chickens in different flocks (n = 59) as well as in‐contact pigs in farms with S. suis‐positive chickens (n = 44) in the Mekong Delta of Vietnam. Streptococcus suis was isolated from 20 (33.9%) chicken flocks and from all pigs investigated. Chicken isolates formed a distinct genotypic cluster compared with pig and human strains, although two chicken isolates (10%) clustered with pig isolates. Chicken isolates had unusually high levels of resistance against tetracycline (100%), clindamycin (100%) and erythromycin (95%); and intermediate resistance against penicillin (35%) and ceftriaxone (15%). Our findings suggest that chickens may potentially represent a source of S. suis infection to in‐contact humans and pigs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Active surveillance for zoonotic respiratory viruses is essential to inform the development of appropriate interventions and outbreak responses. Here we target individuals with a high frequency of animal exposure in Vietnam. Three‐year community‐based surveillance was conducted in Vietnam during 2013‐2016. We enrolled a total of 581 individuals (animal‐raising farmers, slaughterers, animal‐health workers, and rat traders), and utilized reverse transcription‐polymerase chain reaction to detect 15 common respiratory viruses in pooled nasal‐throat swabs collected at baseline or acute respiratory disease episodes. A respiratory virus was detected in 7.9% (58 of 732) of baseline samples, and 17.7% (136 of 770) of disease episode samples (P <.001), with enteroviruses (EVs), rhinoviruses and influenza A virus being the predominant viruses detected. There were temporal and spatial fluctuations in the frequencies of the detected viruses over the study period, for example, EVs and influenza A viruses were more often detected during rainy seasons. We reported the detection of common respiratory viruses in individuals with a high frequency of animal exposure in Vietnam, an emerging infectious disease hotspot. The results show the value of baseline/control sampling in delineating the causative relationships and have revealed important insights into the ecological aspects of EVs, rhinoviruses and influenza A and their contributions to the burden posed by respiratory infections in Vietnam. Highlights: We reported the detection of common respiratory viruses in individuals with a high frequency of animal exposure in Vietnam, an emerging infectious disease hotspot. The results show the value of baseline/control sampling in delineating the causative relationships and have revealed important insights into the ecological aspects of EVs, rhinoviruses and influenza A and their contributions to the burden posed by respiratory infections in Vietnam. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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