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

FY05 Funding July 1, 2005 through December 31, 2005 - $216,557

Activities Proposed for FY 05

Antimicrobial Resistance, Food Safety, Hepatitis Prevention and Control, Influenza Surveillance and Response, West Nile Virus, and General Epidemiology and Laboratory Capacity

Key Performance Indicators

Antimicrobial Resistance

• Based on the successes of the 2003-2004 Antibiotics Are Not Always the Answer campaign, we propose to continue this program into the next phase and would effectively target elementary schools and child care programs, and add a component promoting hand hygiene/respiratory etiquette.

Food Safety

• Ongoing laboratory detection of bacterial, viral, and parasitic foodborne pathogens, through employment of methodology that will attempt to concentrate the targeted organisms in specimens, ensures for better development of our department.

Hepatitis Prevention and Control

• The Hepatitis Program and HCV Coordinator have successfully collaborated with HIV Prevention and Harm Reduction programs to include hepatitis prevention evaluation measures into HIV counseling and testing forms, harm reduction program intake and log forms and HIV Prevention Intervention Evaluation forms.
• Current program evaluation is targeted to measure the success of hepatitis integration. This includes assessment of hepatitis services provided at harm reduction sites.
• The strategic plan adopted by DMDOH has been designed to include "potential measure of success" for each strategy.

Influenza Surveillance and Response

• Influenza Testing will be monitored and shared through the implementation of the Health Alert Network (HAN) and the New Mexico Electronic Disease Surveillance System (NM-EDSS).

West Nile Virus

• We will determine whether WNV or other arboviruses are present in New Mexico by developing an effective and efficient surveillance system using mosquitoes, equine, and humans.
• We will continue to develop educational materials for use by the general public.
• We will continue to work with CDC and AEHD this year to use ArboNet to upload surveillance numerator and denominator data from AEHD and ERD to send on to CDC.

General Epidemiology and Laboratory Capacity

• We hope to increase New Mexico's flexibility and ability to effectively detect, prevent and respond to local and national infectious disease priorities through responsible management.

Contact Information and Links

Joan Baumbach, MD, MPH
Infectious Disease Epidemiology Bureau Chief
Epidemiology and Response Division
New Mexico Department of Health
1190 St. Francis Drive N1350
P.O. Box 26110
Santa Fe, NM 87502-6110

New Mexico Department of Health: http://www.health.state.nm.us/