OBNE 2022 Summary

What to know

OutbreakNet Enhanced (OBNE) is a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) program that provides support to state and local health departments to improve their capacity to detect, investigate, control, and respond to enteric disease outbreaks. OBNE started in August 2015 with 11 sites. The program expanded and now comprises of 29 participating sites.

Map of United States highlighting OutbreakNet Enhanced sites: Washington, Wyoming, California, Nebraska, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Kansas, Arkansas, Iowa, Louisiana, Indiana, Michigan, Kentucky, Virginia, Georgia, Alabama, Illinois, Chicago, Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Florida, New York, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Washington DC

Highlights

In 2022, health departments transitioned towards their “new normal” after being substantially impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic since 2020. Many OBNE projects and activities were resumed after being paused or scaled back for multiple years. As OBNE staff resumed normal duties, they faced new challenges such as training a new and returning workforce.

OBNE sites partnered with Integrated Food Safety Centers of Excellence (Food Safety CoEs) on projects and trainings. OBNE sites were also able to showcase their annual work and provide updates at national meetings and conferences. This included the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists (CSTE) Conference and the Integrated Foodborne Outbreak Response and Management (InFORM) Conference. Additionally, OBNE sites shared their accomplishments with each other during monthly conference calls to learn and share successful strategies. Program activities were also shared through success stories that were published to the OBNE website.

Program performance

OBNE performance metrics have been collected since 2016 to document the burden, timeliness, and completeness of enteric disease outbreak activities. Sites report metrics annually on both laboratory and epidemiologic aspects of outbreak investigations. Metrics are reported for Salmonella, Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC), and Listeria (SSL metrics), and optionally for Shigella and Campylobacter. The metrics are revised as needed to best meet program needs.

Select 2022 metrics for Salmonella, STEC, and Listeria (SSL)

  • Over 47,000 cases reported
  • Over 1,100 clusters detected
  • Attempted interviews with an average of 93% of cases

From 2016 to 2022, OBNE sites decreased the number of days from case report to initial interview attempt for SSL cases.

In 2022, OBNE sites conducted routine interviews of cases in 95% of cluster and outbreak investigations.

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From 2016 to 2022, OBNE sites decreased the number of days from case report to initial interview attempt for SSL cases. In 2016 it took 3.0 days to report Salmonella, 3.1 days to report STEC, and 3.7 days to report Listeria. In 2022, it took 2.5 days to report Salmonella, 1.7 days to report STEC, and 1.4 days to report Listeria.
Green = 2016; Blue = 2022

From 2016 to 2022, OBNE sites maintained the percent of cases with exposure history obtained. Additionally, sites documented a return to pre-COVID turnaround times for obtaining an exposure historyA, from 6.9 days in 2020 to 3.6 days in 2022.

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From 2016 to 2022, OBNE sites maintained the percent of cases with exposure history obtained. Additionally, sites documented a return to pre-COVID turnaround times for obtaining an exposure history, from 6.9 days in 2020 to 3.6 days in 2022.
Green = cases with exposure history; Orange = turnaround time.

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In 2016 (n=9), 18% of Salmonella isolates, 80% of STEC isolates, and 87% of Listeria isolates were tested. In 2022 (n=29) 93% of Salmonella isolates, 87% of STEC isolates, and 88% of Listeria isolates were tested.
Left = 2016; Right = 2022.

Summary‎

OBNE sites continue to improve the timeliness and completeness of enteric disease outbreak surveillance and response activities. They will continue to strengthen their outbreak response programs to conduct faster, better, and more complete investigations, to help limit the spread of foodborne diseases.

Resources

Chart data from OBNE 2022 Summary

2022 OBNE Metrics Table

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Content Source:
National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases (NCEZID)
  1. Reporting for this metric began in 2018.