Enhancing Nebraska's Rabies Surveillance using Electronic Public Health Cases Reports and ESSENCE

Accurate and timely reporting of animal rabies test results and potential human exposures is necessary to guide case management and define rabies epidemiology. Accordingly, Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services (NDHHS) collaborated with Kansas State University Rabies Laboratory (KSU-RL) in 2011 to establish electronic laboratory reporting (ELR) of animal rabies test results to Nebraska's Electronic Disease Surveillance System (NEDSS). If a potential human rabies exposure is verified, NDHHS authorizes state-paid rabies testing through a contractual agreement with KSU-RL. Prior to 2013, authorized tests were requisitioned via phone calls to NDHHS from persons submitting specimens. Relevant exposure information was ascertained; however, no efficient processes existed to subsequently disseminate information to Nebraska local health departments (LHD) for case follow-up. To further improve Rabies Program management, additional enhancements were needed to capture and share exposure data for case follow-up and to improve rabies surveillance.