Response to H1N1 in a U.S.-Mexico border community.
Public health experts from a county health department and a school of public health collaborated to establish a simple, functional surveillance system to monitor swine-origin influenza virus as it crossed from Mexico into a Texas border community during the 2009 pandemic. The draft national and state preparedness plans were found to be cumbersome at the local level, so a simple, more practical real-time surveillance and response system was developed, in part by modifying these documents, and immediately implemented. Daily data analyses, including geographical information system mapping of cases and reports of school and daycare absences, were used for outbreak management. Aggregate reports of influenzalike illness and primary school absences were accurate in predicting influenza activity and were practical for use in local tracking, making decisions, and targeting interventions. These simple methods should be considered for local implementation and for integration into national recommendations for epidemic preparedness and response.
McCormick
Joseph B
JB
University of Texas School of Public Health, Brownsville Regional Campus, Brownsville, Texas 78520, USA. joseph.b.mccormick@uth.tmc.edu
Yan
Chris
C
Ballou
Jessica
J
Salinas
Yvette
Y
Reininger
Belinda
B
Gay
Jennifer
J
Calvillo
Fidel
F
Wilson
J Gaines
JG
Lopez
Leonel
L
Fisher-Hoch
Susan P
SP
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D019058:Community Networks; D004189:Disaster Planning / Q000458:organization & administration*; D040362:Geographic Information Systems; D006801:Humans; D053118:Influenza A Virus, H1N1 Subtype / Q000276:immunology; D007251:Influenza, Human / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000517:prevention & control* / Q000821:virology; D008800:Mexico / Q000453:epidemiology; D008875:Middle Aged; D011159:Population Surveillance / Q000379:methods; D013781:Texas / Q000453:epidemiology; D055815:Young Adult
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