The incidence of and hospitalizations for SSTI have steadily increased over the last decade in the United States, primarily due to the emergence and spread of community acquired Methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (CA-MRSA). The ED is a common site for SSTI treatment and serves populations not captured by traditional surveillance, including the homeless and uninsured. The use of near real-time syndromic surveillance within the ED to detect unusual activity for further public health investigation has been used to augment traditional infectious disease surveillance. However, the use of this approach for monitoring local epidemiologic trends in SSTI presentation where laboratory data are not available, has not previously been described.
Objective
We sought to describe the epidemiology of emergency department (ED) visits for skin and soft tissue infections (SSTI) in an urban area with diverse neighborhood populations using syndromic surveillance system data for the time period from 2007-2011. Our aims were threefold: to demonstrate a proof of concept using syndromic surveillance for SSTI surveillance in the absence of laboratory data, to estimate the burden of ED visits associated with SSTI, and to determine potential geographic “hotspots” for these infections.