Tracking emergency department (ED) patients with gastrointestinal symptoms during a Norovirus epidemic in Miami-Dade

From January to March 2010, thirteen outbreaks of Norovirus infection were reported to the Epidemiology, Disease Control and Immunization Service (EDC-IS), up from four outbreaks in the entire 2008 and same number during 2009. Individual cases of Norovirus are not reportable in the State of Florida. That makes it difficult to track the onset, rise, peak, and fading of epidemics of this disease.

Objective

To demonstrate how the EDC-IS at the Miami-Dade County Health Department used ESSENCE to track gastrointestinal symptoms during a Norovirus epidemic.