Pesticide-related illness and injury is a reportable condition in Florida. In August and September 2016, aerial spraying for mosquito control was conducted in an effort to reduce the population of Aedes aegypti mosquitoes in Miami-Dade County.1 Two areas Wynwood (in August) and Miami Beach (in September) were sprayed with naled. Naled is an organophosphate insecticide registered with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) which is applied via aerial ultra-low volume (ULV) spraying. In addition to routine surveillance using FPICN and reportable disease surveillance data to identify acute naled-related illness, the Florida Department of Health (DOH) also monitored ED chief complaints data to identify any associated increase in ED visits.
Objective:
To describe the use of Florida Poison Information Center Network (FPICN) and Electronic Surveillance System for the Early Notification of Community-based Epidemics (ESSENCE-FL) emergency department (ED) chief complaints data to identify acute naled-related illness following aerial spraying in Miami-Dade county, Florida in response to the Zika outbreak.