Week 6 - Respiratory Virus Surveillance Flashcards
What does the Respiratory Virus Surveillance do?
Provides viruses to monitor genetic/antigenic changes and develop vaccine
viruses
Monitors different levels of disease to understand the full impact
What are the Goals of Influenza (Respiratory Virus) Surveillance
in the United States?
Identify and characterize viruses/strains
– Identify viruses with pandemic potential
– Select vaccine strains
– Track antiviral resistance
Situational awareness
– Describe the onset and duration of the season
– Track geographic spread
Monitor severity
Describe clinical infections and those at risk
Guide decisions for interventions
Considerations for Respiratory Virus Surveillance (not a question but good to know facts )
Large number of infections each year
– Influenza example: 5%-20% of the population infected per year
Disease severity ranges from asymptomatic to severe disease and death
Illness caused by respiratory viruses and clinically indistinguishable from each other
Most infected people don’t seek healthcare
Most surveillance system only covers the medically attended cases
The majority of cases that present to healthcare are not tested (at least not pre-COVID)
Many severe cases may test negative at the presentation
– Secondary bacterial infections
– Worsening of chronic conditions
Not practical (or necessary) to count cases
Frequently need to use syndromic measures of activity – need to know how to interpret the information
Pre-COVID, recognition of importance (and therefore funding) was limited
for some respiratory viruses
Who is involved in National Influenza Surveillance?
Requires participation of many partners in healthcare and public health
Collaborative effort
– State, local, and territorial public health
* Our primary partners
* Lab and epi
– Numerous data providers
– CDC
* Many groups
* Influenza Division coordinates
Put together over time
Each component answers a different question
What is Influenza-Associated Pediatric Mortality Reporting?
Monitor severity
Describe clinical infections and those at risk
Case definition
– Death in a person aged <18 years
– clinically compatible illness
– lab-confirmed flu
– no period of complete recovery between the illness and death
Nationally notifiable condition since 2004
Reported by state health departments
– Detailed case report form
What are some changes of surveillance that happened after the pandemic?
Adaptation/expansion of existing surveillance systems
More focus on some existing systems
Creation of new systems - COVID specific and multi-pathogen
Modify analysis of data from existing systems
Update data visualizations and information sharing to integrate multiple respiratory viruses
Should Surveillance systems be static?
No, Surveillance systems are not (should not be) static – emergencies and constantly changing needs and environment
– What are the key questions?
– Do you have the data to answer those questions?
– Are you collecting the data in a reasonable/resource-efficient way?
– Are you using all the data being collected?
– Does a new data source provide additional value (data elements, timeliness,
geographic coverage/granularity, efficiency)?
