Epidemiology and Laboratory Capacity (ELC) Cooperative Agreement Program
Funding Initiated In 1998

FY05 Funding July 1, 2005 through December 31, 2005 - $752,629

Activities Proposed for FY 05

Antimicrobial Resistance, Food Safety, Hepatitis Prevention and Control, Influenza Surveillance and Response, National Electronic Disease Surveillance System, West Nile Virus, General Epidemiology and Laboratory Capacity, and Prion Disease

Key Performance Indicators

Antimicrobial Resistance

• A total of 250 clinicians will receive continuing education credit on appropriate antibiotic use.
• The number of visits to the TexSAS website visits will be increased by 10 percent.
• Translate by February 1, 2006, the Anti-Bs poster "There's no excuse for overuse?" into Spanish and make the poster available to the public and health care providers by placing it on the TexSAS website.
• Similarly translate the FAQs section, "Antibiotics Aren't Always the Answer," into Spanish.
• Sentinel surveillance for MRSA among high school athletic departments will be completed.

Food Safety

• The Department will conduct one molecular epidemiology area meeting by October 2005. This meeting will be a vehicle to optimize laboratory-epidemiologist interaction.
• Establishment of the project and validation studies of at least one procedure for molecular identification of a foodborne parasite will be completed by June 2006.
• A survey of laboratories that have received a Department request for stool specimen submission will be performed twice during the grant period to measure compliance with past requests.

Hepatitis Prevention and Control

• Reduce the number of misclassified acute HCV cases reported from greater than 5,000 to less than 500 per year.
• Write an annual report on the epidemiology of HCV in Texas that includes a model of hepatitis C morbidity and mortality costs and their future impact.
• Create a four page HCV module to be incorporated into the perinatal hepatitis B training manual.

Influenza Surveillance and Response

• At least 50 participants in the Sentinel Provider Surveillance Network will be obtained with 50 percent reporting each week.
• The hemadosorption test will be performed on all respiratory viral isolation specimens submitted outside the normal influenza season.
• Greater than 90 percent of all influenza isolates will be sub typed each season.

National Electronic Disease Surveillance System

• Ongoing process monitoring.

West Nile Virus

• Mosquito surveillance will be conducted in the 15 most populated counties in the state and 25 other counties.
• Positive tests identifying a patient with WN virus infection will be disseminated to the appropriate regional office within 48 hours of receiving the report.
• The West Nile virus web site will be updated at least twice each week during peak activity (June-October).
• Surveillance forms will be completed on at least 90 percent of all persons whose test results indicated West Nile virus, St. Louis encephalitis virus, or flavivirus seroconversion.

General Epidemiology and Laboratory Capacity

• All rabies viruses detected in the Bureau of Laboratories will be typed to determine specific variants.
• All enteroviruses detected in the Bureau of Laboratories will be serotyped using monoclonal antibodies or molecular sequence information.
• All invasive group A Streptococcus isolates will be characterized using PFGE and a database of strains developed.

Contact Information and Links

Jeffrey Taylor, MPH
Manager, Infectious Disease Epidemiology & Surveillance Branch
Texas Department of State Health Services
1100 West 49th Street
Austin, TX 78756-3199

Texas Department of State Health Services: http://www.dshs.state.tx.us/