Influenza is not a notifiable disease in Kansas; patient-level influenza data is not reported to the Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE). Kansas’ primary method of influenza surveillance is the U.S. Outpatient Influenza-like Illness Surveillance Network (ILINet), a collaboration between the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and state health departments. During the 2014-2015 influenza surveillance period (September 28, 2014 through May 16, 2015), 35 health care providers (20 family practice clinics, nine hospital emergency departments, four university student health centers, and two pediatric clinics) served as ILINet sites. Providers were instructed to report the previous week’s influenzalike illness (ILI) data, including the number of patients who met the ILI case definition and the total number of patients seen, by 11:00 AM each Tuesday. An average of 16 providers (45%) met the deadline each week.
Objective
Measure the correlation between Influenza-like Illness (ILI) data collected by the U.S. Outpatient Influenza-like Illness Surveillance Network (ILINet) and the National Syndromic Surveillance Program (NSSP) in Kansas for the 2014-2015 influenza surveillance period.