Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) BioSense system receives near real-time health care utilization data from number of sources, including DoD and VA outpatient facilities, and nonfederal hospital EDs in the US to support all-hazards surveillance and situational awareness. However, the BioSense system lacks some critical functions such as creating ad hoc definition of syndrome or ad hoc query tool development. This limits CDC Emergency Operations Center’s (EOC) ability to monitor new health events such as MERS - a viral respiratory illness first reported in Saudi Arabia in 2012. In May 2014, CDC confirmed two unlinked imported cases of MERS in the US - one in Indiana, the other in Florida. Upon report of a MERS case in Indiana, staff initiated joint efforts with EOC and several affected jurisdictions to enhance the surveillance of MERS irrespective of jurisdictions’ preferred surveillance system.
Objective
To identify and monitor Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) like syndromes cases in the syndromic surveillance system.