Epidemiology and Laboratory Capacity (ELC) Cooperative Agreement Program
Funding Initiated In 2000

FY05 Funding April 1, 2005 through March 31, 2006 - $3,309,864

Activities Proposed for FY 05

Antimicrobial Resistance, Border Infectious Disease Surveillance (BIDS), Food Safety; Hepatitis Prevention and Control, Influenza Surveillance and Response, National Electronic Disease Surveillance System (NEDSS), and West Nile Virus

Key Performance Indicators

Antimicrobial Resistance

• AWARE will use gathered data to look at and document AMR activities in individual counties.
• Relate increases or decreases in testing to the impact on the public health by a yearly surveillance of local Public Health Laboratories.

Border Infectious Disease Surveillance (BIDS)

• Epidemiologic monitoring of human WNV transmission.
• Epidemiologic monitoring of hepatitis.

Food Safety

• Identify possible common source clusters of foodborne disease by detecting matching PFGE patterns.
• PFGE microbiologist attends at least 10 weekly meeting with Epidemiology Staff, as well as well as the monthly Community Epidemiology Food Team meetings.
• Supervising Public Health Microbiologist attends meetings with Epidemiology staff when clusters or outbreaks are being investigated.
• A monthly workload report is prepared by the PFGE microbiologist listing each type of organism typed and significant findings.

Hepatitis Prevention and Control

• Growth of HCV collaboration and integration sites.
• Accuracy of HCV surveillance data.

Influenza Surveillance and Response

• Ability to track the timing and severity of flu outbreaks.
• Ability to determine if one source of data (provider) is a more reliant indicator of flu activity.
• Detection and Identification of novel flu strains.

National Electronic Disease Surveillance System

• Increased accuracy of disease surveillance statistics.
• Enhanced ability for rapid response and investigation of outbreaks and high risk cases.

West Nile Virus

• Updates on WNV activity are generated at least weekly and reported to local public health departments, vector control agencies, and the CDC. (www.westnile.ca.gov)

Contact Information and Links

Dave Schnurr, PhD
Chief, Viral Isolation Section
Viral and Rickettsial Disease Laboratory
Division of Communicable Disease Control
California Department of Health Services
850 Marina Bay Parkway, Third Floor
Richmond, CA 94804

California Health Department: http://www.dhs.ca.gov/