The Electronic Integrated Disease Surveillance System (EIDSS) is a computer-based disease reporting application funded under the Cooperative Biological Engagement Program of the U.S. Defense Threat Reduction Agency. EIDSS deployment includes the Republics of Georgia (GG) and Azerbaijan (AJ) where personnel in the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Agriculture in each country enter case-based disease reports. The potential benefits obtained through surveillance of infectious diseases across species have been widely discussed. A limitation of such practice has been the paucity of single applications that collect information about disease in both human and other animal populations (Scotch 2009). A unique feature of EIDSS is the use of a single platform to enter reports of disease in humans and other animals. Records are stored in a common database enabling ready access to information on multiple diseases and provide a quantitative linkage between human and animal data. An integrated analysis and reporting (AVR) module further supports timely investigation of disease events across the epizootic barrier.
Objective
We describe an electronic disease reporting system that integrates case-based disease information from humans and other animals in a single database and examine the utility for supporting disease surveillance functions through access to longitudinal case reports of multiple diseases across multiple species provided by the system.