Ontological representation of CDC Active Bacterial Core Surveillance Case Reports

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s Active Bacterial Core Surveillance (CDC ABCs) Program is a collaborative effort betweeen the CDC, state health departments, laboratories, and universities to track invasive bacterial pathogens of particular importance to public health [1]. The year-end surveillance reports produced by this program help to shape public policy and coordinate responses to emerging infectious diseases over time. The ABCs case report form (CRF) data represents an excellent opportunity for data reuse beyond the original surveillance purposes

Statistical approaches to the surveillance of infectious diseases for veterinary public health

This technical report covers the aspect of using statistical methodology for the monitoring of routinely collected surveillance data in veterinary public health. An account of the Farrington algorithm and Poisson cumulative sum schemes for the detection of aberrations is given with special attention devoted to the occurrence of seasonality and spatial aggregation of the time series. Modelling approaches for retrospective analysis of surveillance counts are described. To illustrate the applicability of the methodology in veterinary public health, data from the surveillance of rabies among fox in Hesse, Germany, are analysed

Can remote STI/HIV testing and eClinical Care be compatible with robust public health surveillance?

In this paper we outline the current data capture systems for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and sexually transmitted infection (STI) surveillance used by Public Health England (PHE), and how these will be affected by the introduction of novel testing platforms and changing patient pathways. We outline the Chlamydia Online Clinical Care Pathway (COCCP), developed as part of the Electronic Self-Testing for Sexually Transmitted Infections (eSTI(2)) Consortium, which ensures that surveillance data continue to be routinely collected and transmitted to PHE. We conclude that both novel diagnostic testing platforms and established data capture systems must be adaptable to ensure continued robust public health surveillance

Can Lessons from Public Health Disease Surveillance Be Applied to Environmental Public Health Tracking?

Disease surveillance has a century-long tradition in public health, and environmental data have been collected at a national level by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for several decades. Recently, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced an initiative to develop a national environmental public health tracking (EPHT) network with “linkage” of existing environmental and chronic disease data as a central goal. On the basis of experience with long-established disease surveillance systems, in this article we suggest how a system capable of linking routinely collected disease and exposure data should be developed, but caution that formal linkage of data is not the only approach required for an effective EPHT program. The primary operational goal of EPHT has to be the “treatment” of the environment to prevent and/or reduce exposures and minimize population risk for developing chronic diseases. Chronic, multifactorial diseases do not lend themselves to data-driven evaluations of intervention strategies, time trends, exposure patterns, or identification of at-risk populations based only on routinely collected surveillance data. Thus, EPHT should be synonymous with a dynamic process requiring regular system updates to a) incorporate new technologies to improve population-level exposure and disease assessment, b) allow public dissemination of new data that become available, c) allow the policy community to address new and emerging exposures and disease “threads,” and d) evaluate the effectiveness of EPHT over some appropriate time interval. It will be necessary to weigh the benefits of surveillance against its costs, but the major challenge will be to maintain support for this important new system

Influenza and Other Respiratory Virus Weekly Activity Report, July 11, 2009, Week 27

Weekly report of the Iowa Influenza Surveillance Network produced by the Iowa Department of Public Health

Influenza and Other Respiratory Virus Weekly Activity Report, March 28, 2009, Week 12

Weekly report of the Iowa Influenza Surveillance Network produced by the Iowa Department of Public Health