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Mass Gathering

Description

The Louisiana Office of Public Health (OPH) conducts emergency department (ED) syndromic surveillance using the Louisiana Early Event Detection System (LEEDS). LEEDS automatically processes electronic chief complaint and diagnosis data to identify ED visits indicative of specific syndromes. The Infectious Disease Epidemiology section (IDEpi) of OPH uses LEEDS to monitor infectious disease and injury syndromes during natural or man-made disasters and high profile events. Past events monitored include hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Isaac, the Gulf Coast oil spill, yearly Mardi Gras festivities, marsh fires and chemical leaks. LEEDS has proven to be an invaluable tool in providing all-hazards public health situational awareness during these types of events by enabling near real-time monitoring of infectious disease and injury syndromes.

Objective

To demonstrate the value of syndromic surveillance as a tool to provide situational awareness during high profile events such as the Super Bowl and Mardi Gras in New Orleans, LA.

Submitted by knowledge_repo… on

Mass gatherings—defined as events attended by a sufficient number of people to strain the planning and response resources of the host state—pose unique surveillance challenges. Attendees can be at greater (or high) risk for injuries due to event activities or volume of people in an unstructured setting. Surveillance can help detect early signs of outbreaks associated with crowding and compromised sanitation.

Submitted by elamb on
Description

On March 7th and 8th of 2007 authorities from federal, state, county, and municipal jurisdictions/agencies having mass migration response responsibilities (as per the Department of Homeland Security Operation Vigilant Sentry, as well as State and Local plans) initiated the last of a series of mass migration exercise events. The mission of the exercise was to “unify” a federal, state, and local response to effectively mitigate a catastrophic mass migration incident, similar to the Mariel Boatlift (125,000+ migrants) in 1980. The exercise included volunteers who visited a few local emergency departments with specific scripts describing an acute medical condition.

 

Objective

Describe the use of the ESSENCE (Electronic Surveillance System for the Early Notification of Community-based Epidemics) system to detect unusual patterns of emergency department use during a full scale mass migration exercise in South Florida.

Submitted by elamb on
Description

When the Chicago Bears met the Indianapolis Colts for Super Bowl XLI in Miami in January, 2007, fans from multiple regions visited South Florida for the game. In the past, public health departments have instituted heightened local surveillance during mass gatherings due to concerns about increased risk of disease outbreaks. For the first time, in 2007, health departments in all three Super Bowl-related regions already practiced daily disease surveillance using biosurveillance information systems (separate installations of the ESSENCE system, developed at JHUAPL). The situation provided an opportunity to explore ways in which separate surveillance systems could be coordinated for effective, short-term, multijurisdictional surveillance.

 

Objective

This paper describes an inter-jurisdictional surveillance data sharing effort carried out by public health departments in Miami, Chicago, and Indianapolis in conjunction with Super Bowl XLI.

Submitted by elamb on
Description

The Hajj is considered to be the largest mass gathering to date, attracting an estimated 2.5 million Muslims from more than 160 countries annually. The H1N1 Influenza A pandemic of 2009 generated a global wave of concern among public health departments that resulted in the institution of preventive measures to limit transmission of the disease. Meanwhile, the pandemic amplified an urgent need for more innovative disease surveillance tools to combat disease outbreaks. A collaborative effort between the KSA Ministry of Health (MOH) and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) was initiated to implement and deploy an informatics-based mobile solution to provide early detection and reporting of disease outbreaks during the 2009 Hajj. The mobile-based tool aimed to improve the efficiency of disease case reporting, recognize potential outbreaks, and enhance the MOH’s operational effectiveness in deploying resources.

Objective

To develop and implement a mobile-based disease surveillance system in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) for the 2009 Hajj; to strengthen public health preparedness for the H1N1 Influenza A pandemic.

Submitted by teresa.hamby@d… on
Description

North Carolina hosted the 2012 Democratic National Convention, September 3-6, 2012. The NC Epidemiology and Surveillance Team was created to facilitate enhanced surveillance for injuries and illnesses, early detection of outbreaks during the DNC, assist local public health with epidemiologic investigations and response, and produce daily surveillance reports for internal and external stakeholders. Surveillane data were collected from several data sources, including North Carolina Electronic Disease Surveillance System (NC EDSS), triage stations, and the North Carolina Disease Event Tracking and Epidemiologic Collection Tool (NC DETECT). NC DETECT was created by the North Carolina Division of Public Health (NC DPH) in 2004 in collaboration with the Carolina Center for Health Informatics (CCHI) in the UNC Department of Emergency Medicine to address the need for early event detection and timely public health surveillance in North Carolina using a variety of secondary data sources. The data from emergency departments, the Carolinas Poison Center, the Pre-hospital Medical Information System (PreMIS) and selected Urgent Care Centers were available for monitoring by authorized users during the DNC.

Objective:

To describe how the existing state syndromic surveillance system (NC DETECT) was enhanced to facilitate surveillance conducted at the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, North Carolina from August 31, 2012 to September 10, 2012.

 

Submitted by Magou on

The attached query was developed to track medication refill encounters in emergency departments in ESSENCE during evacuations or extended mass gathering events. The query was initially developed for use with the chief complaint, triage note, and discharge diagnosis code (ICD-10 CM). 

 

Submitted by Anonymous on

Mass gatherings (e.g., concerts, festivals, sporting events, political rallies, and religious gatherings) pose unique challenges to public health officials. Risks associated with large events can vary and are influenced by factors such as crowd size and age (range, or average/mean), weather, event type and purpose, and use of alcohol or drugs. Often, the risk of injury increases. And not only do people in large crowds spread disease through close contact during an event, they can transport the disease when they leave. Healthcare resources can therefore be overwhelmed.

Submitted by elamb on
Description

Objective:

To describe disease and illness surveillance utilized during the 2012 Republican National Convention (RNC) held August 26-30, 2012 in Tampa, FL.

Introduction:

While the Tampa Bay Area has previously hosted other high profile events that required heightened disease surveillance (e.g., two Super Bowls), the 2012 RNC marked the first national special security event (NSSE) held in Florida. The Hillsborough County Health Department (HCHD), in conjunction with the Pinellas County Health Department (PinCHD) coordinated disease surveillance activities during this time frame. This presentation will focus of the disease surveillance efforts of the Hillsborough County Health Department during the 2012 RNC. In addition to the surveillance systems that are used routinely, the HCHD Epidemiology Program implemented additional systems designed to rapidly detect individual cases and outbreaks of public health importance. The short duration of RNC, coupled with the large number of visitors to our area, provided additional surveillance challenges. Tropical Storm Isaac, which threatened Tampa in the days leading up to RNC, and an overwhelming law enforcement presence likely dissuaded many protestors from coming to Tampa. As a result, a tiny fraction of the number of protestors that were expected actually showed up.

Submitted by jababrad@indiana.edu on