In early 2017, HAV outbreaks were identified in San Diego County (490 cases) and Santa Cruz County (73 cases) in California, affecting primarily the homeless and/or illicit drug users. As of October 10, 2017, LAC had identified 12 outbreak-related HAV cases. Due to LAC’s proximity to San Diego County, and its own large homeless population, the syndromic surveillance team of the LAC Department of Public Health created a syndrome category and began querying its ED data to monitor for any increase in HAV-related visits.

Objective:

The use of social media as a syndromic sentinel for diseases is an emerging field of growing relevance as the public begins to share more online, particularly in the area of influenza. Several applications have been developed to predict or monitor influenza activity using publicly posted or self-reported online data; however, few have prioritized accuracy at the local level. In 2016, the Cook County Department of Public Health (CCDPH) collected localized Twitter information to evaluate its utility as a potential influenza sentinel data source.

As global temperatures increase, so too does interest in the effect of climate change on the population’s health. 2016 represented the hottest year on record globally and well above the 20th century average in Virginia. With large-scale climate change comes an increase in severe weather patterns, including heat waves. Heat waves can have immense health impacts on a community, including heat stroke, heat exhaustion, and dehydration.

Early Notification Detection Systems have taken a critical role in providing early notice of disease outbreaks. To improve the detection methods for disease outbreaks, many detection methods have been created and implemented. However, there is limited information on the effectively of syndromic surveillance in Thailand. Knowing the performance, strengths and weakness of these surveillance systems in providing early warning for outbreaks will increase disease outbreak detection capacity in Thailand.

Objective: