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Martinello Richard

Description

On 20 April 2010, an explosion on an offshore drilling rig in the Gulf of Mexico led to a prolonged uncontrolled release of crude oil. Both clean-up workers and coastal residents were potentially at high risk for respiratory and other acute health effects from exposure to crude oil and its derivatives, yet there was no surveillance system available to monitor these health effects. The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) conducts routine surveillance for biological threats using the Electronic Surveillance System for Early Notification of Community Based Epidemics (ESSENCE). ESSENCE captures specific patient care visit ICD-nine codes belonging to selected conditions that could represent a biological threat. VA operates 153 medical centers and over 1000 free standing patient care facilities across the United States. We describe the adaptation of ESSENCE to allow surveillance of health conditions potentially related to the oil spill.

 

Objective

To describe a surveillance system created to identify acute health issues potentially associated with the Deepwater Horizon oil spill among Veterans in the Gulf of Mexico coastal region.

Submitted by hparton on
Description

Influenza is associated with significant morbidity and mortality nationally each year and VA's large elderly population is at particular risk. VA Office of Public Health (OPH) has monitored influenza and influenza-like-illness (ILI) activity using the VA's biosurveillance system since 2009 (1,2). VA influenza surveillance capacity has expanded significantly in recent years to include inpatient influenza data, telephone triage data, laboratory testing data and enhanced geospatial mapping capabilities.

Objective

Herein we summarize our ongoing influenza surveillance activities and describe the 2012-2013 influenza season activity in VA.

Submitted by knowledge_repo… on