We help public health practitioners find, understand and use infectious disease research and evidence.
News
Cyclosporiasis: What Canadian Public Health Professionals Need to Know
Cyclosporiasis is an emerging foodborne parasitic disease that continues to pose public health challenges in Canada, particularly in outbreaks associated with imported fresh produce. Timely detection, effective surveillance, outbreak investigation, and coordinated public health responses are essential to reducing illness and preventing further transmission. Recent outbreaks in the USA are causing concern in North America.
Cyclosporiasis (Cyclospora cayetanensis)
Cyclosporiasis is an intestinal disease caused by Cyclospora cayetanensis, a protozoan parasite. Transmission occurs via ingestion of sporulated oocysts in contaminated food or water (fecal‑oral route). It is not typically spread directly from person to person.
What Canadian Public Health Needs to Know About Hantavirus
This episode of Infectious Questions podcast explores the Hantavirus, a rodent-borne virus that can cause severe and potentially life-threatening illness in humans. In this episode, we discuss the virus’s morphology and classification, how it is transmitted through exposure to infected rodent droppings, urine, and saliva, and the signs and symptoms of Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome (HPS).
Nipah virus
NiV was first identified in swine and people who interacted with infected swine, but has now been identified in cats, dogs, goats, horses and is known to naturally occur in certain fruit bat types. The virus is currently endemic to Southeast Asia, in the natural habitat of the fruit bat. However, it is considered an emerging viral agent with both epidemic and pandemic potential.
Impetigo
Impetigo is a mild, but highly contagious skin infection caused by bacteria that normally reside on the body. Impetigo spreads quickly either by person-to-person contact when an infected individual touches their blisters or rash and then touches another individual, or when a healthy individual touches objects or surfaces that have already come into contact with the rash of an infected individual (fomites).
Bartonella
Bartonellosis is a group of infectious diseases caused by bacteria within the Bartonella genus. The bacteria are fastidious, aerobic, gram-negative cocci/small rods, and are hemotropic. The bacteria invade erythrocytes and the lining of blood vessels where they then proliferate.
NCCID News + Alerts
NCCID News and Alerts are your way to stay connected with all NCCID has to offer – current, peer-reviewed expertise and evidence on infectious diseases public health in Canada.
Point of Care Testing (POCT)
Point-of-Care Testing involves diagnostic testing carried out in close proximity to the patient, frequently at the patient’s bedside,
in a primary care environment or in a community setting, as opposed to being conducted in a centralized clinical laboratory.
Discover how challenges are being addressed through innovative POCT solutions and collaborative efforts.
Looking for case studies and recent practical examples of POCT use?
The Knowledge Mobilization (KM) Hub
The Knowledge Mobilization (KM) Hub aims to strengthen knowledge mobilization across 19 Research Teams under the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) Embracing Diversity to Achieve Precision and Health Equity initiative (2025-2030). The Hub is a central KM resource for Research Teams to collaborate on equity-focused approaches to promote the uptake and implementation of research outputs.
Watch previously recorded KM HUB webinars on YouTube
Project Streams
Emerging Diseases and Outbreaks
The aim of this project stream at NCCID is to provide the most recent information available on emerging infectious diseases (EIDs): an EID is an infectious disease that has appeared in a population for the first time, or that may have existed previously but is rapidly increasing in incidence or geographic range. Outbreaks are the occurrence of disease cases in excess of what would normally be expected for a community, geographical area or season.
Tuberculosis
Despite its low prevalence in Canada, tuberculosis (TB) remains a public health challenge in this country. Overall incidence rates of active TB remain stagnated, and the burden of disease continues to concentrate among certain populations that are disproportionately represented among the new cases.
Mathematical Modelling and Big Data
Mathematical modelling is a research method that can inform public health planning and infectious disease control. Through complex simulations of real-world possibilities, mathematical modelling provides a cost-effective and efficient method to assess optimal public health interventions.
HIV/STBBI Prevention and Control
NCCID’s HIV and sexually-transmitted and blood-borne infections (STBBI) projects aim to respond to the recognized need for more strategic, coordinated and integrated approaches in Canada through the translation and exchange of knowledge between researchers, policy-makers and practitioners.
Antimicrobial Use and Resistance
Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) refers to changes in infectious organisms (viruses, bacteria, fungi and parasites) so that they can no longer be controlled or treated effectively by standard drugs such as antibiotics, antivirals and antifungals. AMR is an increasingly serious threat to public health and NCCID works with partners across the country to provide evidence and resources on AMR surveillance and antimicrobial use (AMU).
Migration and Mobility
Population movements—from global migration to community displacement—contribute to the emergence and re-emergence of infectious diseases in Canada.
NCCID supports knowledge translation in fast-growing areas of refugee, evacuee, and migrant workers’ health to bring current evidence and information to public health practitioners and policymakers.
Prevention by Vaccine
NCCID supports public health efforts to improve prevention by vaccines and immunizations, including approaches to vaccine confidence.
Notifiable Diseases Database
Each Canadian province and territory has legal requirements for reporting certain infectious diseases. The reporting requirements are usually outlined in legislation, and the list of conditions that must be reported is usually outlined in regulations. The NDDB is a compilation of case definitions in all Canadian provinces and territories.
Diseases Debriefs
NCCID Disease Debriefs are designed to offer timely and up-to-date knowledge of emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases for Canadian public health audiences. Disease Debriefs connect readers to clinical and public health guidance, evidence, and other sources of information.