 | The 131st Annual Meeting (November 15-19, 2003) of APHA |
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| The 131st Annual Meeting (November 15-19, 2003) of APHA |
A. Chevelle Glymph, MPH, Bureau of Epidemiology & Health Risk Assessment, District of Columbia Department of Health, 825 North Capitol St NE, #3142, Washington, DC 20002, 202-442-9146, aglymph@dchealth.com
Gastroenteritis outbreaks are common occurences in certain populations, specifically those that are in institutional settings, such as schools, child care facilities, and nursing homes. Often, the difficulty in investigation with these specific populations is because of delays in reporting, difficulty in interviewing cases and recall bias.
During May-June 2002, the District of Columbia Department of Health investigated gastroenteritis outbreaks at two long-term care faciities (LTCF) in the District of Columbia. LTCF A, seventy two out of 161 residents and LTCF B, sixteen residents out of 275 residents complained of vomiting, diarrhea, fever, chills, headache, muscle ache, and abdominal cramps; LTCF A, duration of illness shortest=4 hours, longest=72, median=38 hours. This investigation lead to a closer partnership with area nursing homes that included, a health alert to all LTCF in the district, additional hand-hygiene in-services to employees and staff, and an increase in reporting and decrease in reporting delays.
Learning Objectives:
Keywords: Long-Term Care, Epidemiology
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.