Skip to main content

Thomas Richard

Description

NPDS is a national database of detailed information collected from each call, uploaded in near real-time, from the 57 participating regional poison centers (PCs) located across the US. NPDS is owned and operated by the American Association of Poison Control Centers (AAPCC). Since 2001, scientists from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention collaborated with AAPCC to use NPDS for surveillance of chemical, poison and radiological exposures. In March of 2011, a 9.0 magnitude earthquake and tsunami damaged the reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Japan, causing a radiological incident classified as a "major accident" according to the International Nuclear Event Scale. The incident resulted in the release of radioactive iodine (I-131) into the global environment, which was detected in precipitation in parts of the United States. While no adverse health effects were expected, concerned citizens contacted public health officials at the local, state and federal levels. Many started to acquire and use potassium iodide (KI) and other iodide-containing products intended for thyroid protection from I-131, even though this was not a public health recommendation by state and federal public health agencies. Shortly after international media coverage began, regional PCs began receiving calls regarding the Japan radiological incident. State and federal health officials were interested in identifying health communication needs and targeting risk communication messages to address radiation concerns and KI usage recommendations as part of the public health response. This was done in part through NPDS-based surveillance.

Objective

To describe how the National Poison Data System (NPDS) was used for surveillance of individuals with potential incident-related exposures in the United States resulting from the Japan earthquake radiological incident of 2011. Our secondary objective is to briefly describe the process used to confirm exposures identified through NPDS-based surveillance.

Submitted by elamb on
Description

On August 20th and 21st, 2007, Ohio sustained heavy rains which resulted in severe flooding over a nine-county area in the north-central part of the state. Increased hospital emergency department (ED) visits were expected for gastrointestinal illnesses, but this was not observed. After a media report on September 4, 2007 suggested swarms of mosquitoes were plaguing residents, ED character-specific data were analyzed to see if these data could confirm the report.

 

Objective

This retrospective analysis of text fragments in emergency department chief complaints illustrates the usefulness of syndromic surveillance in providing timely situational awareness of insect prevalence in post-flood situations.

Submitted by elamb on
Description

Outbreaks of infectious diseases are identified in a variety of ways by clinicians and public health practitioners but not usually by analytic methods typically employed in syndromic surveillance. Systematic spatial-temporal analysis of statewide data may enable earlier detection of outbreaks and identification of multi-jurisdictional outbreaks.

 

Objective

Clusters of cases of individually-reportable infectious diseases were identified by a spatial-temporal retrospective analysis. Clusters were examined to determine association with previously reported outbreaks.

Submitted by elamb on