Epidemiology and Laboratory Capacity (ELC) Cooperative Agreement Program
Funding Initiated In 2001

FY05 Funding April 1, 2005 through March 31, 2006 - $1,383,209

Activities Proposed for FY 05

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

Key Performance Indicators

Antimicrobial Resistance

• Measure the effectiveness of childcare interventions by comparison of two different follow up surveys of licensed childcare providers in Minnesota.

Food Safety

• At least 80 percent of non-immigrant screen girardiasis will be interviewed as part of surveillance.
• At least 90 percent of cryptosporidiosis cases will be interviewed as part of surveillance.
• All Salmonella Typhimurium and S. Newport isolates from humans submitted to MDH and from animals submitted to the Minnesota Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory will be tested for antimicrobial susceptibility and sub-typed by pulsed field gel electrophoresis at MDH on a real-time basis.
• At least 90 percent of shigellosis cases will be interviewed.

Hepatitis Prevention and Control

• Increased awareness by providers of viral hepatitis disease, prevention, screening, testing, and treatment.
• Decrease in the number of new cases of viral hepatitis among risk population in communities targeted for intervention.
• Increase in the number of unduplicated adults at risk for viral hepatitis receiving vaccination for HAV and HBV.
• Increase in hepatitis prevention activities by traditional HIV and STD programs and community-based organizations.

National Electronic Disease Surveillance System

• Daily emails will communicate summary laboratory data to program staff regarding the number of tests received and processed.
• All identified errors or LOINC/SNOMED coding issues will be logged and communicated to key staff within 24 hour time period.
• The system will conform to laboratory reporting work group requirements and enhancement requests will be prioritized the work group.

West Nile Virus

• MDH will continue to use CDC's "Epidemic/Epizootic West Nile Virus in the United States: Guidelines for Surveillance, Prevention, and Control" as a minimum benchmark for proposed activities. We will continue to interview human case-patients on a real-time basis and obtain samples tested at commercial laboratories for verification at the PHL.
• MDH will develop a plan to ensure that mosquito pools are tested rapidly rather than archiving samples.
• We will submit all confirmed WNV findings to Arbonet promptly after testing.
• We will continue to participate in all WNV conference calls through discussing current surveillance efforts and continue cooperative projects with CDC.

General Epidemiology and Laboratory Capacity

• During the 2004-2005 funding period, new molecular–based assays were developed, validated and implemented to address a variety of infectious disease issues of public health not previously incorporated. Results from these investigations will be shared at the end of the funding period.

Contact Information and Links

Harry F. Hull, MD
Director, Infectious Disease Prevention and Control State Epidemiologist
Minnesota Department of Health
717 Delaware Street SE
P.O. Box 9441
Minneapolis, MN 55440-9441

Minnesota Department of Health: http://www.health.state.mn.us/