Special Projects
Epidemiology and Laboratory Capacity in Infectious Disease
As part of its efforts to detect newly emerging infectious diseases, the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) awarded the Acute Communicable Disease Control Unit
(ACDC) a cooperative agreement in September 1995. The Epidemiology and Laboratory
Capacity (ELC) in Infectious Diseases Cooperative Agreement has two parts: improvement
of communicable disease (CD) case data collection and processing; and enhancement of
public health laboratory technology.
Enhanced Surveillance Project (ESP)
The first component of the ELC cooperative agreement is referred to as the Enhanced
Surveillance Project (ESP). ESP will: 1) centralize and computerize the disease reporting
system in Los Angeles County (LAC), and 2) improve the internal communication system to
use the CD data more effectively. Centralized disease reporting includes the development
of specialized software called
Visual Confidential Morbidity Report (VCMR or Visual CMR)
that coordinates all disease reports, foodborne illness reports, and outbreak investigations.
Additionally, a new
Communicable Disease Reporting System (CDRS)
allows for CD reports to be received centrally via voice telephone, facsimile, or electronic
mail.
Public Health Laboratory: (PulseNet and Foodborne Disease Surveillance)
The second component of the ELC provides equipment and training for the
Public Health
Laboratory (PHL) to perform molecular epidemiologic methods of DNA "fingerprinting" on
bacterial isolates from potential foodborne, airborne, and nosocomial outbreaks. The
Molecular Epidemiology Section of PHL is also a part of
PulseNet is a national
network of public health laboratories that performs DNA "fingerprinting" on bacteria that
may be foodborne. The network permits rapid comparison of these "fingerprint" patterns
through an electronic database at the CDC. Additional funds for food safety support support
an epidemiologist and additional laboratory staff in surveillance and outbreak investigation
roles.
Food and Water Safety Epidemiologist
The Food and Water Safety Epidemiologist responsibilities include: 1) conducting active
laboratory-based surveillance of Shigellosis in LAC; 2) developing a collaborative
information system for foodborne diseases; 3) facilitating detection of Salmonellosis
outbreaks in LAC; 4) characterizing illnesses due to Norwalk-Like Virus (NLV) in LAC
and; 5) establishing a hospital surveillance system among Department of Health Services
(DHS) public hospitals for bioterrorism and public health adverse events.
West Nile Virus
West Nile Virus is an emerging infectious disease in which cases in the Eastern
United States have been documented since summer 1999. Activities are underway to
build surveillance capabilities of the
Public Health Laboratory
in order to detect, monitor, control, and prevent infection and disease caused by West Nile
and other arboviruses.
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