Injury Surveillance

In 2005, three hurricanes made landfall in Florida, with Hurricane Wilma having the most severe impact on Miami-Dade County. Syndromic surveillance is typically used to detect bioterrorism or natural disease outbreaks before specific diagnoses are made. After Wilma, however, the Miami-Dade County Health Department assessed the utility of syndromic data for surveillance of hurricane-related injuries.

Objective

To determine the proportion of injuries in Miami-Dade County that could be related to the impact of Hurricane Wilma, which made landfall in Florida on October 25, 2005.

On Monday, August 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast. Outside of the affected areas of TX, LA, MS, and AL, GA received the largest number of these evacuees, approximately 125,000. By August 30, 2005, GA began receiving a total of approximately 1,300 NDMS patients from flights arriving at Dobbins Air Force Base. Within days, Georgia established 13 shelters for evacuees. Crowded shelters can increase the risk for communicable diseases. In addition, many evacuees left behind needed medications, thus increasing the risk for chronic disease exacerbations.

Objective

To assess public health needs among sheltered evacuees, the GA Department of Human Resources, Division of Public Health recommended daily surveillance.

Surveillance strategies following major natural disasters have varied widely with respect to methods used to collect and analyze data. Following Hurricane Katrina, public health concerns included infectious disease outbreaks, injuries, mental health and exacerbation of preexisting chronic conditions resulting from unprecedented population displacement and disruption of public health services and health-care infrastructure.

Objective

This paper describes the public health surveillance response to hurricane Katrina in New Orleans and surrounding Parishes; particularly illustrating the methods, results, and lessons learned for implementing passive, active and electronic syndromic surveillance systems during a major disaster.