The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA

Abstract #45476

John O. Davies-Cole, PhD, MPH¹, LaVerne H Jones, MPH², A. Chevelle Glymph, MPH¹, and Gebreyesus Kidane, PhD¹. (1) Bureau of Epidemiology & Health Risk Assessment, District of Columbia Department of Health, 825 North Capitol St NE Suite 3137, Washington, DC 20002, 202-442-9138, john.davies-cole@dc.gov, (2) Bureau of Epidemiology and Health Risk Assessment, Washington DC Department of Health, 825 North Capitol St NE, Washington DC, DC 20002

The District of Columbia in collaboration with the surrounding jurisdictions activated their regional health surveillance system on September 12, 2001, after terrorists attacked the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Washington, DC. This presentation will focus on syndromic surveillance data obtained from visits to the Emergency Departments of eight hospitals in Washington DC. Data were collected daily and reflected the period from midnight through 11.59 PM for the previous day. The data were categorized and tallied according to the following targeted syndromes: respiratory illness, gastrointestinal illness, rash illness, unspecified infection-like illness, sepsis, death,neurologic and other. The data were analyzed and compared to baseline data for the community. A modified version of the Cumulative Summation Threshold (CUSUM) was used for aberration detection. Threshold for case investigation and need for response was determined by baseline data. Suspicious patterns of illness and problems of data collection and analyses will be discussed. Data will be analyzed by age and sex to show monthly trends and differences in the pattern of syndromes for those categories. This data will be useful to the Department of Health as the basis for an integrated disease surveillance system, for baseline information in determining unusual occurrences in any future release of bioterrorism agents, and for identifying other disease outbreaks.

Learning Objectives:

By the end of this session, participants will be able to;
• compare monthly trends in syndromic surveillance data
• describe syndromic data by race and age and;
• assess the importance of ED surveillance data in identifying disease outbreaks related to a bioterrorism event.

Keywords: Surveillance, Bioterrorism

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: District of Columbia Department of Health, Washington DC
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.