Disease surveillance data

Epidemiological data are often based on broad populations such as a community, a nationwide probability sample, registries or disease surveillance programmes (Savitz Harlow, 1991 Scialli et al., 1997). Potential toxicants are also monitored in outdoor air, food, water and soil. These measurements can be used to calculate estimated exposure of humans through contact with their contaminated environment. However, such environmental measurements are difficult to link to... 

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has a Birth Defects Surveillance Program. Approximately one-third of the births in the United States each year are monitored for defects. Any significant increase in specific defects or any geographic or temporal cluster of defects would be detected rapidly. Such an effect would be followed up by an intensive investigation into the causal agents. The CDC surveillance data reported between 1977 and 1979 showed no increase in birth defects across the nation. 

Collect, record, and provide surveillance data to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 

Several types of data are routinely collected related to infectious disease surveillance, including morbidity, mortality, and health indicator data (CDC, 1992). Each state has requirements for mandatory reporting by health care providers and facilities, including laboratories, of cases of notifiable infectious diseases. There is a national notifiable disease list as well, for which reporting is voluntary, with data compiled through the National Notifiable Disease Surveillance System (CDC, 2004d, 2006). 

Special systems Special systems focus on a particular disease or type of surveillance data, and may include a combination of several different types of surveillance systems. Examples of special systems are the surveillance system designed to monitor West Nile virus, which includes passive and active report-... 

Real-Time Outbreak and Disease Surveillance (RODS) Project. RODS, which began in western Pennsylvania in 1999, now collects data from emergency departments, urgent care facilities, and clinical laboratories in several states (Wagner et al., 2004). In 2003, the system became available as open-source software, and it is now also in use in several foreign countries (RODS, 2006). 

Public health surveillance is an essential process for detection of biological events. The traditional notifiable disease reporting system remains an important component of infectious diseases surveillance however, new approaches are being implemented that may enhance capabilities for early detection of events. The increasing availability of electronic health data and advances in information technologies provide opportunities for active, real-time surveillance systems (Teich et al., 2002). Syndromic surveillance systems that rely on alternative health indicators and detection of unusual patterns have... 

Wagner, M. W, Espino, J., Tsui, F-C., Gesteiand, R, Chapman, W, Ivanov, 0. et al. (2004). Syndrome and outbreak detection using chief-complaint data—Experience of the Real-Time Outbreak and Disease Surveillance project. In Syndromic Surveillance Reports from a National Conference, 2003. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, 53(Suppl.), 28-31. 

Developing a system to share data may turn out to be one of the biggest—and most complex—goals of the grant. The goal is to create an interoperable disease surveillance system that health care workers on both sides of the border can access. It would provide an alert system and a database with common coding and commonly reported diseases. Though it may sound simple. 

Why is it necessary to have baseline surveillance data to evaluate disease patterns ... 

Health outcome data and parameters are the third major source of data for health assessments. The identification, review, and evaluation of health outcome parameters are interactive processes involving ATSDR, data source generators, and the community involved. Health outcome data are community-specific and may include databases at the local, state, and national level, as well as data from private health care organizations and professional institutions and associations. Databases to be considered include medical records, morbidity and mortality data, tumor and disease registries, birth statistics, and surveillance data. Relevant health outcome data play an important role in assessing the public health implications associated with a hazardous waste site and in determining which follow-up health activities are needed. 

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Infectious Diseases, Division of Bacterial and Mycotic Diseases. Surveillance for Botulism. Summary of 2001 Data, http // www.cdc.gOv/ncidod/dbmd/diseaseinfo/files/BotCSTE2001.pdf. Last accessed 4/15/06... 

Untoward vaccine effects are variable, manifesting from injection site irritation, fever, and irritability to encephalopathy, paralysis, and even death. - " " Reporting of certain vaccine adverse events to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) is mandatory. VAERS was established by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to facilitate the process of gathering postmarketing surveillance data on vaccine-related adverse events. VAERS reports record adverse events temporally but not necessarily eausally associated with vaccination. 

Snyder JD, Merson MH. The magnitude of the global problem of acute diarrhoeal disease A review of active surveillance data. Bull WHO 1982 60 604-613. 

Surveillance data indicate that the incidence of certain OIs in HIV-infected persons in the United States continues to change. The three major OIs—Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia (PCP), Mycobacterium avium complex (MAC) disease, and cytomegalovirus (CMV) retinitis—all have decreased in incidence. Potent antiretroviral reg-... 

In 1999, the University of Pittsburgh s Center for Biomedical Informatics deployed the first automated bioterrorism detection system, called RODS (Real-Time Outbreak Disease Surveillance). RODS is designed to draw collect data from... 

Cholera remains the one disease that consistently can cause dehydrating diarrhea in a healthy adult. The symptoms of cholera are caused by cholera toxin (CT), a protein enterotoxin that elicits profuse diarrhea [5, 6], Clinically, patients with the most severe form of the disease can pass in excess of 1 L of diarrheal stool per hour if fluid losses are not replaced by oral or intravenous fluids, this can result in severe dehydration, shock, and death in 12-24 h. With appropriate therapy, mortality rates for cholera should be less than 1%. However, in the absence of an adequate public health infrastructure to provide treatment, mortality rates may reach or exceed 40%. This is reflected in the 2005 World Health Organization s cholera-surveillance data (the most recent available) 131,942 cholera cases were reported in 52 countries, the majority of which had case-fatality rates below 1% rates in excess of 1% occurred almost exclusively in sub-Saharan Africa, with multiple countries in this region reporting rates in excess of 5% [7],... 

A program has been developed using public-domain software for relational data entry (EpiData) and production of interactive reports (Epilnfo). It includes features for data entry (with quality checks) at the RPHI level and electronic transfer of records to the NPHI. It provides links with Excel and Word. The application produces a weekly epidemiologic bulletin in Word and allows interactive browsing of tables, charts, and maps in HTML format. The system generates alert reports based on disease-specific thresholds. The communicable diseases surveillance system in the Republic of Macedonia is shown in Fig. 1. 

The bulk of the analyses presented in this chapter focuses on the landscape ecology perspective and aims to define the potential geographic distribution of B. anthracis in the lower 48 states of the United States, under both current ecological conditions and a future climate-change scenario, and across the country of Mexico, where surveillance data on this disease are lacking. 

Intelligence/Information Section. The Intelligence/Information section is responsible for gathering intelligence about the incident. This includes not only national security and other classified information, but also other operational information such as risk assessments, medical intelligence (disease surveillance), weather information, toxic chemical or radiation levels, and any other important data. 

The outcome of data analysis and the quality of data play an important role and have a lot of applications in public health practice. These include disease research, prevention assessment, population evaluation, program planning, potential future health problems, and hypothesis generation for study design. These data derive from local and national sources and include health inquiries, hospital and surveillance data, vital statistics, outbreak investigations, and general research. The most important thing in order to draw conclusions is the quality of our data which depends on accuracy and completeness. 

U.S. Centers for Disease Control, 2009a. Lead. CDC s National Surveillance Data (1997—2007), June 1. Atlanta, GA U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, , (accessed 11.12.10.). 

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