Displaying results 9 - 16 of 17
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Acute Hepatitis A Infection and Vaccination in the Veterans Health Administration
Content Type: Abstract
Since hepatitis A vaccination became widely recommended in the US in the mid-1990's, rates of acute hepatitis A virus (HAV) infection have steadily declined, however, since 2011, incidence of new cases of HAV appears to be increasing1, often linked… read more -
Acute Hepatitis A Infections among Veterans in Outbreak States, 2016-2018
Content Type: Abstract
Although cases of acute HAV have declined in recent years, elevated numbers of HAV infections began to be reported by California and Michigan in the fall of 2016.1,2 Since this time, associated outbreaks have been reported in 9 additional states (… read more -
Adapting a syndromic biosurveillance system to monitor veterans’ health impact associated with the gulf coast oil spill
Content Type: Abstract
On 20 April 2010, an explosion on an offshore drilling rig in the Gulf of Mexico led to a prolonged uncontrolled release of crude oil. Both clean-up workers and coastal residents were potentially at high risk for respiratory and other… read more -
Surveillance for nationally notifiable infectious conditions using ICD-9-CM diagnosis codes in the VA ESSENCE biosurveillance system
Content Type: Abstract
The Electronic Surveillance System for the Early Notification of Community-based Epidemics (ESSENCE) obtains electronic data from 153 Veterans Affairs (VA) Medical Centers plus outpatient clinics in all 50 states, American Samoa, Guam,… read more -
Enhancing Biosurveillance Specificity Using PraedicoTM, A Next Generation Application
Content Type: Abstract
Many methods to detect outbreaks currently exist, although most are ineffective in the face of real data, resulting in high false positivity. More complicated methods have better precision, but can be difficult to interpret and justify. Praedico™ is… read more -
Improving the Value Proposition of Surveillance Tools: Innovative Uses for VA ESSENCE
Content Type: Abstract
VA began using ESSENCE as a public health surveillance tool in 2005. The system offered alerting capability for pre-defined syndromes and querying capability for outpatient ICD-9 diagnosis codes. Herein, we highlight examples of how we have invested… read more -
Dengue, Chikungunya & Zika Virus in VA Caribbean HCS, Nov. 2015-Aug. 2016
Content Type: Abstract
DENV, CHIKV and ZIKV are all transmitted by mosquitoes and have occurred in outbreaks in the Caribbean. Common symptoms (which can be severe and disabling) are similar among the 3 viruses and include fever, joint pain/swelling, headache, muscle pain… read more -
Evaluation of Praedico™, A Next Generation Big Data Biosurveillance Application
Content Type: Abstract
The National Strategy for Biosurveillance promotes a national effort to improve early detection and enable ongoing situational awareness of all-hazards threats. Implicit in the Strategy’s implementation plan is the need to upgrade capabilities and… read more