Pandemic

Epidemiologists and public health professionals work to ensure the risk and impact of existing and emerging diseases are minimized and do not turn into a pandemic. Timely and accurate information has become imperative as the world has become more interconnected through travel and technology. Recently, new information systems have played a key role in improving public health’s early warning and case management for disease outbreaks. Improved analytics to predict risk in populations have helped researchers open new doors to disease cures and medicines. The role of technology and public health to support these efforts has become more valuable. Health information systems are traditionally used for electronic medical records or payer billing systems and are not paired with technology advancements. Efforts today to link information and technology to engage consumers are championed by health plans and healthcare providers. Empowering individuals to be proactive when presented with their medical records is not a simple problem to solve. Information must be actionable but it still may not achieve the desired success. What if the health community engaged consumers with a social mission to help them fight disease outbreaks by becoming frontline activists to report occurrences and outcomes, and become intelligent connections to extend the right information to their social networks? This would encourage consumer technology to be better integrated with health information technology with continued investment in sustaining critical public health ecosystems. A large part of health information systems are immunization information systems (IIS) where administered vaccines are documented in a confidential computer based system in a specific geographic area1. The IIS can be used for disease surveillance purposes and provide valuable information to public health authorities2. Recently, MyIR was created where any IIS, pharmacy or provider can provide patients direct access to family immunization records. Providers can communicate to patients using MyIR to increase engagement and send vaccine reminders.

Objective: If public health agencies used direct communication channels to individuals by building on existing immunization networks, the public would receive correct information quicker during a pandemic. Furthermore, there is value that can be leveraged from social networks to advance public health efforts to manage disease events and encourage consumers being more proactive in managing their own health care.

Seasonality has a major effect on the spatial and temporal (i.e. spatiotemporal) dynamics of natural systems and their populations (1). Although the seasonality of influenza in temperate countries is widely recognized, inter-regional spread of influenza in the United States has not been well characterized.

Objective

To study the seasonality of influenza in the United States between 1972 and 2007 through the evaluation of the timing, velocity, and spatial spread of annual epidemic cycles.

In Reunion Island, the non-specific surveillance was developed since 2006 and was based on the activity of only one hospital emergency department and on mortality. To respond to the threat of influenza A(H1N1) pandemic emergence, this surveillance system was significantly enhanced. All hospital emergency departments of the island have been included as well as the emergency medical service regulation center. In 2010, a new surveillance was implemented from National Health Insurance data.

Objective

To demonstrate that the different surveillance systems allow to establish complementary indicators.

Work on vaccination timing and promotion largely precedes the 2009 pandemic. Post-pandemic studies examining the wide range of local vaccination efforts mostly have been limited to surveys assessing the role of administrative strategies, logistical challenges, and perceived deterrents of vaccination [1].

Objective

To assess the effectiveness of a Public Health automated phone campaign to increase vaccination uptake in targeted neighborhoods. To identify alternative predictors of variation in vaccination uptake, specifically to assess the association between vaccination uptake, and weather conditions and day-of-week.

The threat of epidemics due to non-human strains of influenza A viruses is ever present1. Surveillance is a critical aspect of pandemic preparedness for early case detection2. Identification of the index cases of a pandemic virus can trigger public health mitigation efforts3. To develop an appropriate surveillance process, it is important to understand the two possibilities of pandemic evolution. A new pandemic may begin with mild cases, during which surveillance should be concentrated on work/school absenteeism and in physician offices. The other possibility begins with severe cases, characterized by sCAP, respiratory failure, and ICU admission. As the syndrome of pneumonia is not reportable to health agencies for public health surveillance, a year-round, hospital-based surveillance mechanism may be an important tool for early case detection in the event of an epidemic of sCAP. To fill these gaps, we developed a statewide, hospital-based surveillance network for sCAP surveillance in Kentucky.

Objective

To present the development and implementation of the SIPS project, a statewide, hospital-based surveillance system for severe community-acquired pneumonia (sCAP) in Kentucky.

Much progress has been made on the development of novel systems for influenza surveillance, or explored the choices of algorithms for detecting the start of a peak season. The use of multiple streams of surveillance data has been shown to improve performance but few studies have explored its use in situational awareness to quantify level or trend of disease activity. In this study we propose a multivariate statistical approach which describes overall influenza activity and handles interrupted or drop-in surveillance systems.

Objective

This paper describes the use of multiple influenza surveillance data for situational awareness of influenza activity.