Assessing neonatal herpes reporting in the United States, 2000-2005.
OBJECTIVE
We describe neonatal herpes reporting and the number of cases reported in states with reporting requirements in the United States, 2000-2005.


METHODS
A national assessment of neonatal herpes reporting practices was conducted using an e-mail and phone query.


RESULTS
Neonatal herpes was a reportable condition in 9 states in the United States from 2000-2005: CT, MA, FL, OH, NE, LA, SD, DE, and WA. There was no standard surveillance case definition in 5 states and in 4 states there was no specific form for reporting neonatal herpes. Few cases were reported in any state (range, 0-13 cases per year). A total of 112 cases were reported in these 9 states over 5 years (2000-2004); the overall incidence rate was 4 cases/100,000 live births.


CONCLUSIONS
Although reportable in some states, neonatal herpes is not currently a nationally reportable disease. As currently employed by individual states during this time frame, neonatal herpes reporting does not appear to be a reliable way to assess burden of disease. Development of a standard case definition and assessment of the best approaches for local and national neonatal herpes surveillance may improve performance of such reporting.
D018563:Disease Notification / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D034742:Electronic Mail; D005260:Female; D006561:Herpes Simplex / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000209:etiology / Q000517:prevention & control* / Q000635:transmission; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D018445:Infectious Disease Transmission, Vertical; D008297:Male; D015997:Neonatal Screening / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013689:Telephone; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology