 | The 131st Annual Meeting (November 15-19, 2003) of APHA |
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| The 131st Annual Meeting (November 15-19, 2003) of APHA |
Alfonso Rodriguez, DVM, PhD, California Office of Binational Border Health, 3851 Rosecrans St, PO Box 85524, MS P511B, San Diego, CA 92138 and Maureen L Fonseca-Ford, MPH, CDC Prevention Specialist, Department of Health Services, California Office of Binational Border Health, 3851 Rosecrans St, P.O. Box 85524, MS P511B, San diego, CA 92138-5524, 619.692.8334, Mfonseca@dhs.ca.gov.
Purpose: The rapid spread of West Nile Virus (WNV) across the United States in 2002 has increased the urgency to improve detection and prevention of future cases, especially in the border region with its high Latino population mobility. The Border Infectious Disease Surveillance project (BIDS) is an established binational (U.S.–Mexico) syndromic surveillance system (with sentinel sister-sites) that has focused on fever, rash diseases and hepatitis. It is possible that WNV will disproportionately affect areas such as Imperial county (with a 70% Latino population) as it expands into California. WNV can be a potentially fatal disease. To prepare for potential increases in WNV cases, BIDS will add a new disease component effective 2003. This will aid in the monitoring of emerging cases by establishing protocols, and data systems, to increase surveillance data communication between both nations.
Objectives: The WNV Surveillance system will be implemented binationally within all of the BIDS sites. We will describe how the protocol was developed (including a comparison of the border states’ protocols and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Guidelines). We will look at the database being developed, and the challenges of data security that arise with binational collaboration. We will describe the laboratory training efforts underway for border state and local health laboratories.
Conclusions: With the surveillance results this year, we will have a more accurate view of WNV transmission along the US- Mexico border states. This information will enable planning of future interventions to control WNV and enhance the BIDS surveillance system.
Learning Objectives:
Keywords: Surveillance, West Nile Encephalitis
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.