Positive Behavior Support and Intervention Programs vs Responsive Classroom Programs: Impact on Perceptions of School Climate

School climate is an aspect of school life that has been examined closely in recent literature as it related to student interactions, behavior, and student achievement. A number of factors that affect school climate have been identified; these include student/teacher relationships, school safety and student relations, clarity of a school’s expectations, perceived fairness of school rules, and the presence of a strong, welldeveloped and widely-accepted behavior program in a school. Both Positive Behavior Intervention and Support (PBIS) programs and Responsive Classroom (RC) programs have been identified as having a positive impact on school climate at multiple grade levels and across demographics. The Delaware School Climate Survey (DSCS) is a tool that has been used across the state over multiple years to examine perceptions of school climate in multiple informant groups: teachers and staff members, parents and guardians, and students. This study evaluates the Delaware School Climate Survey results both in a PBIS elementary school and in a RC elementary school to examine the perceptions of school climate between informant groups and across the two school intervention programs. Results of the study found that perceptions of school climate were predominantly higher overall in the PBIS school, compared with the RC school. At the domain level, results showed that teachers, parents, and students in the PBIS school reported higher scores in the areas of Teacher/Student Relations, Student Relations and Safety, Fairness of Rules, and Clarity of Expectations domains

Babesia microti, Upstate New York

Five cases of human babesiosis were reported in the Lower Hudson Valley Region of New York State in 2001. An investigation to determine if Babesia microti was present in local Ixodes scapularis ticks yielded 5 positive pools in 123 pools tested, the first detection of B. microti from field-collected I. scapularis in upstate New York

Molecular Epidemiology of Eastern Equine Encephalitis Virus, New York

Southern strains are undergoing amplification, perpetuation, and overwintering in New York

An Integrated Mosquito Surveillance Module in New York State

ObjectiveTo develop a mosquito surveillance module to collect mosquitoinformation testing for West Nile, East Equine Encephalitis (EEE)and Zika viruses using national standards. To provide a common setof data for local health departments (LHDs) and state users to reportand share information. To monitor the type of mosquito species thatcarry diseases.IntroductionThere were several stand-alone vector surveillance applicationsbeing used by the New York State Department of Health (NYSDOH)to support the reporting of mosquito, bird, and mammal surveillanceand infection information implemented in early 2000s in responseto West Nile virus. In subsequent years, the Electronic ClinicalLaboratory Reporting System (ECLRS) and the CommunicableDisease Electronic Surveillance System (CDESS) were developedand integrated to be used for surveillance and investigations of humaninfectious diseases and management of outbreaks.An integrated vector surveillance system project was proposedto address the migration of the stand-alone vector surveillanceapplications into a streamlined, consolidated solution to supportoperational, management, and technical needs by using the nationalstandards with the existing resources and technical environment.MethodsA mosquito surveillance module was designed to link with CDESS,an electronic disease case reporting and investigation system, to allowLHDs to enter mosquito trap sites and mosquito pool informationobtained from those traps. The mosquito test results are automaticallytransmitted to ECLRS through public health lab Clinical LaboratoryInformation Management System (CLIMS) using ELR standards. Byutilizing these standards, the ECLRS was enhanced to add a new non-human specimen table and existing processes were used to obtainmosquito laboratory results and automatically transfer them to thesurveillance system the same way that human results are transferred.The new mosquito surveillance module also utilizes the existingCDESS reporting module, thereby allowing users the flexibility toquery and extract data of their choosing. The minimum infectionrate (MIR) report calculates the number of infected pools with anarbovirus divided by the total number of specimens tested*1000; atrap report shows number of mosquitoes trapped by species type,location and trap type; and a lab test result report shows the numberof pools that tested positive and the percentage of positive pools bydisease.ResultsThe mosquito surveillance module was rolled out in May 2016to all 57 LHDs. A non-human species lookup table was created toallow public health lab to report the test results using Health Levelseven (HL7) v 2.5.1 standards. As of August 31, 2016 there were4,545 pools tested. A total of 201 (4.4%) pools were positive for WestNile and the MIR was 1.2. There were no pools positive for EEEor Zika virus. Various reports have been created for monitoring thesurveillance of mosquitoes trapped and tested for mosquito-bornediseases.ConclusionsThe integration of mosquito surveillance module within CDESSallows LHDs and the State to monitor mosquito-borne disease activitymore efficiently. The module also increases NYDOH’s ability toprovide timely, accurate and consistent information to the local healthdepartments and healthcare practitioners regarding mosquito-bornediseases

Early Detection of Possible Outbreaks from Electronic Laboratory Reports

Positive laboratory test results are required to confirm over 80% of communicable diseases and they are often the first indication of  a disease. The space-time permutation scan statistic only requires disease counts, event date and disease location, which are available from an electronic laboratory reporting system for early detection of potential disease outbreaks. The timeliness in identifying clusters from data submitted by clinical laboratories to the NY statewide electronic laboratory reporting system was earlier than using the traditional method for selected communicable diseases

Tick Surveillance Practices in the Northeast

Material included in the supplemental file has been previously published. These materials are either open access or were included with express permission of authors.A review of tick surveillance guidance and best practices tailored for the Northeast USA. Speakers include experts from the New York State Department of Health, Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station, Maine Medical Center Research Institute, Vermont Agency of Agriculture, and Columbia University. Topics to be covered include: Considerations for starting a surveillance program; Field methods for medically important species; Pathogen testing; Data analysis and communication considerations; and Lessons learned from regional programs. Supplementary materials included: example personnel training manuals, tick field collection protocols and forms, estimated program start-up and operational costs.Northeast Regional Center for Excellence in Vector-Borne Diseases.1_c2u00og

An Integrated Mosquito Surveillance Module in New York State

ObjectiveTo develop a mosquito surveillance module to collect mosquitoinformation testing for West Nile, East Equine Encephalitis (EEE)and Zika viruses using national standards. To provide a common setof data for local health departments (LHDs) and state users to reportand share information. To monitor the type of mosquito species thatcarry diseases.IntroductionThere were several stand-alone vector surveillance applicationsbeing used by the New York State Department of Health (NYSDOH)to support the reporting of mosquito, bird, and mammal surveillanceand infection information implemented in early 2000s in responseto West Nile virus. In subsequent years, the Electronic ClinicalLaboratory Reporting System (ECLRS) and the CommunicableDisease Electronic Surveillance System (CDESS) were developedand integrated to be used for surveillance and investigations of humaninfectious diseases and management of outbreaks.An integrated vector surveillance system project was proposedto address the migration of the stand-alone vector surveillanceapplications into a streamlined, consolidated solution to supportoperational, management, and technical needs by using the nationalstandards with the existing resources and technical environment.MethodsA mosquito surveillance module was designed to link with CDESS,an electronic disease case reporting and investigation system, to allowLHDs to enter mosquito trap sites and mosquito pool informationobtained from those traps. The mosquito test results are automaticallytransmitted to ECLRS through public health lab Clinical LaboratoryInformation Management System (CLIMS) using ELR standards. Byutilizing these standards, the ECLRS was enhanced to add a new non-human specimen table and existing processes were used to obtainmosquito laboratory results and automatically transfer them to thesurveillance system the same way that human results are transferred.The new mosquito surveillance module also utilizes the existingCDESS reporting module, thereby allowing users the flexibility toquery and extract data of their choosing. The minimum infectionrate (MIR) report calculates the number of infected pools with anarbovirus divided by the total number of specimens tested*1000; atrap report shows number of mosquitoes trapped by species type,location and trap type; and a lab test result report shows the numberof pools that tested positive and the percentage of positive pools bydisease.ResultsThe mosquito surveillance module was rolled out in May 2016to all 57 LHDs. A non-human species lookup table was created toallow public health lab to report the test results using Health Levelseven (HL7) v 2.5.1 standards. As of August 31, 2016 there were4,545 pools tested. A total of 201 (4.4%) pools were positive for WestNile and the MIR was 1.2. There were no pools positive for EEEor Zika virus. Various reports have been created for monitoring thesurveillance of mosquitoes trapped and tested for mosquito-bornediseases.ConclusionsThe integration of mosquito surveillance module within CDESSallows LHDs and the State to monitor mosquito-borne disease activitymore efficiently. The module also increases NYDOH’s ability toprovide timely, accurate and consistent information to the local healthdepartments and healthcare practitioners regarding mosquito-bornediseases