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Gournis Effie

Legionellosis is a respiratory disease that can lead to serious illness such as pneumonia, and can even result in death. Since 2010, increased reports of legionellosis have been received in Toronto during the summer months and led to a five-fold increase by 2012. This underscored the need to rule out common sources through a rapid assessment of exposure data (i.e., locations visited) for any spatio-temporal links. Legionella bacteria from a single source can affect individuals at distances as great as 10 km (1) but dispersion of Legionella bacteria is generally within 1 km of the source (2). This information was used to describe an area of potential risk around each exposure location. Adding temporal information from dates of potential exposures could provide a useful tool for outbreak detection. An automated tool was developed to link spatial and temporal data to assess need for further follow up.

Objective:

To develop an outbreak detection tool which uses spatial information related to temporally clustered legionellosis cases reported in Toronto, Canada.

Submitted by elamb on

Although the majority of work in syndromic surveillance has been its application to bioterrorism and infectious diseases, one of the emerging priorities for its use is for the monitoring of environmental health conditions. Heat-related illness (HRI) is of growing public health importance, especially with global warming concerns and increased frequency of heat waves. Ambient temperatures are responsible for significant morbidity and mortality, as was demonstrated during the 1995 heat wave in Chicago that resulted in over 700 excess deaths and 33,000 emergency room visits due to HRI. A syndromic surveillance system that is able to detect early indications of excess HRI may start the public health response earlier, and thus reduce associated morbidity and mortality. The utility of 911 ambulance dispatch data for the early detection of heat-related illness was explored.

 

Objective

This paper describes the use of 911 ambulance dispatch data for the early detection of HRI in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

Referenced File
Submitted by elamb on

In the early morning of Friday January 20, 2017, Toronto Public Health (TPH) was notified of several reports of acute vomiting, diarrhea, and stomach pain/cramps among students living in residence at a post-secondary institution in Toronto, Canada. A public health investigation was initiated and it was quickly determined that a large number of students and visitors to the campus were affected. Following considerable media coverage, TPH began receiving an overwhelmingly high volume of reports from ill individuals who lived, visited, or worked at the college campus and had experienced gastrointestinal illness.

Objective:

To describe the use of an online survey tool to rapidly collect data from a large community outbreak of enteric illness in Toronto, Canada.

Submitted by elamb on

The international Society for Disease Surveillance has successfully brought together practitioners and researchers to share tools, ideas, and strategies to strengthen health surveillance systems. The Society has evolved from an initial focus on syndromic surveillance to a broader consideration of innovation in health surveillance. More recently, ISDS has also worked to support surveillance research and practice in International resource-constrained settings. Individuals who work in surveillance in developed countries outside the USA, however, have received little direct attention from ISDS. The policy and practice contexts in these countries are often quite different than the USA, so there is a need to support surveillance innovation in these countries in a manner that fits the context. Canadian surveillance practitioners and researchers comprise the largest International group of ISDS members, and these members have expressed an interest in working with ISDS to translate surveillance innovations into practice in Canada, where a national surveillance network and forum is lacking. This Round Table will consider how ISDS can help to support members in countries like Canada and will identify next steps for promoting the science and practice of disease surveillance in the Canadian context.

Objective

1) To explore how ISDS can better support researchers and public health practitioners working in the field of disease surveillance outside the United States;

and

2) To identify current surveillance issues in the Canadian public health system where ISDS can support dialogue and action.

 

Submitted by Magou on
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