Emerging Pathogens Initiative: An Automated Surveillance System.The Veterans Health Administration, Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), debuted its nationwide computer-based Emerging Pathogens Initiative on October 1, 1998. The initiative is an automated surveillance system that collects data from all 171 VA medical centers (from 146 reporting sites) on 14 specific pathogens or diseases: vancomycin-resistant enterococcus, penicillin-resistant pneumococcus pneumococcus Spheroidal bacterium (Streptococcus pneumoniae) that causes human diseases including pneumonia, sinusitis, ear infection, and meningitis. Usually occurring in the upper respiratory tract, this gram-positive (see , Escherichia coli O157, Candida bloodstream infections, Clostridium difficile, Cryptosporidium, dengue dengue or breakbone fever or dandy fever Infectious, disabling mosquito-borne fever. Other symptoms include extreme joint pain and stiffness, intense pain behind the eyes, a return of fever after brief pause, and a characteristic rash. , antibody-positive hepatitis C, Legionella Legionella /Le·gion·el·la/ (le?jah-nel´ah) a genus of gram-negative, aerobic, rod-shaped bacteria (family Legionellaceae), normal inhabitants of lakes, streams, and moist soil; they have often been isolated from cooling-tower water, , leishmaniasis leishmaniasis (lēsh'mənī`əsĭs), any of a group of tropical diseases caused by parasitic protozoans of the genus Leishmania. , malaria, tuberculosis, group A streptococcus group A streptococcus n. A common but virulent streptococcus that kills the tissue it infects and produces toxins that trigger a form of shock that affects the vital organs. , and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. Other information (e.g., patient demographics, antimicrobial susceptibility where appropriate, co-morbidities, and number of patients by facility) is also collected and downloaded into a central database on a monthly basis. After aggregate reports are compiled, the 22 VA patient-care networks will receive network-specific data, along with national VA quartile rankings. For further information, contact Gary A. Roselle, M.D., program director for infectious diseases, VA Headquarters, at 5113-475-6398. |
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