Poison control centers (PCCs) provide a new source of real-time symptom data that could enhance surveillance systems for foodborne disease outbreaks (FBDOs) through more timely public health department interventions. PCCs provide treatment advice to callers with suspected foodborne illnesses before they seek medical care. The Arizona Poison and Drug and Information Center (APDIC) and the Pima County Health Department (PCHD) are currently evaluating the usefulness of the APDIC’s data collection and triage system to provide early detection of FBDOs in Pima County. Our previous study found that PCC callers with a diarrheal/gastrointestinal syndrome were not duplicative of the cases investigated by PCHD, suggesting that they represent two independent data sets. Evaluating the usefulness of a syndromic surveillance system in terms of its impact on public health is consistent with the CDC’s objectives for improving surveillance. Systems that identify too many cases may overwhelm a health department’s surveillance ability, while too few cases may prevent effective identification of outbreaks.
Objective
This study was designed to test the use of high disease transmission risk criteria in callers to a regional poison control center meeting a predefined case definition for diarrheal/gastrointestinal syndrome as part of an active surveillance program reporting to a county public health department.