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ISDS Annual Conference Proceedings 2012. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-
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ISDS 2012 Conference Abstracts

Can Novel Flu Surveillance Be Conducted With Limited
Resources?
Alan Siniscalchi*1 and Amanda Schulte2

1State of CT Dept of Public Health, Hartford, CT, USA; 2International Society for Disease Surveillance, Boston, MA, USA

Objective
This project was organized to facilitate discussions on whether suc-

cessful novel flu surveillance can be conducted by jurisdictions with
limited resources. The discussions will focus on gathering opinions
regarding the best combination of surveillance systems to quickly
and efficiently identify the presence of influenza A (H3N2)v and other
novel influenza viruses in circulation.

Introduction
The past decade has witnessed rapid development and implemen-

tation of numerous syndromic and other advanced surveillance sys-
tems to supplement traditional laboratory testing to identify the
presence of novel influenza strains and track the impact on local pop-
ulations. While much of the development and widespread imple-
mentation of these systems had been supported by public health
preparedness funding, the loss of these monies has greatly constrained
the ability of public health agencies to staff and maintain these sys-
tems. The periodic appearance of novel flu viruses, such as H3N2v,
requires agencies to carefully choose which systems will provide the
most cost-effective data to support their public health practice.

Methods
This project will be facilitated by an experienced public health

practitioner who has conducted surveillance for a variety of disease
agents. Additional public health practitioners are being recruited
among members of the International Society for Disease Surveillance
(ISDS) Public Health Practice Committee (PHPC) to contribute in-
formation on comparative approaches to cost effective surveillance.
Questions were selected for discussion and responses will be col-
lected from influenza surveillance coordinators using a web-based
survey tool managed by ISDS staff on behalf of the PHPC. Survey re-
sponses and subsequent recommendations will be presented at a
PHPC meeting.

Results
Initial questions selected for the survey tool and subsequent dis-

cussions include:
What surveillance systems does your agency use for conducting

influenza surveillance?
Which surveillance systems require trained and experienced pub-

lic health and informatics staff to maintain?
Is your agency having difficulties in recruiting and retaining

trained surveillance staff?
Has influenza A (H3N2)v been identified in your state or jurisdic-

tion?
Does your agency have sufficient staff and other resources to be

able to conduct targeted surveillance of novel influenza strains, such
as identifying H3N2v cases associated with agricultural fairs or
school surveillance for ILI cases?

Which surveillance systems provide useful data for monitoring
health impact during seasons with highly pathological influenza
strains?

Which surveillance systems provide useful data for identifying the
presence of novel influenza strains and conducting situational aware-
ness?

Keywords
situational awareness; influenza surveillance; H3N2v; resource lim-
itations

*Alan Siniscalchi
E-mail: alan.siniscalchi@ct.gov

Online Journal of Public Health Informatics * ISSN 1947-2579 * http://ojphi.org * 5(1):e169, 2013