Enhancing Influenza Surveillance and Information Exchange Between Public Health and Schools in North Texas Through the Development of a School-based Syndromic Surveillance System

Influenza illness results in approximately 36,000 deaths and 200,000 hospitalizations in the United States each year. The duration and severity of the disease causes increased absences from both work and school. Research has indicated that school-aged children are the key vehicles for transmitting the flu to those who live in their households. With the threat of new and emerging diseases like SARS and pandemic influenza, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has recommended that schools work in partnership with their local health departments “to develop a surveillance system that would alert to substantial increases in absenteeism among students.”

To address this call to action, the Southwest Center for Advanced Public Health Practice has developed a School Health Surveillance System using an open-source, web-based portal, which provides school nurses with an online, automated system designed for them to upload their health data (student absences, students absent with influenza-like illness (ILI, perception of flu activity)) for analysis in ESSENCE, a syndromic surveillance system. The web portal will facilitate dialogue between public health and school nurses by providing a venue for information exchange, which includes disease prevention and health promotion resources. Fifteen independent school districts in Tarrant County, Texas will be participating in the pilot project during the 2007-2008 and 2008-2009 school years. The data will be used to assist the local health department in the early detection of ILI in the student population in order to focus resources for targeted specimen sampling, vaccinations, and public health messaging.