Infectious Diseases

Flu Virus Image Infectious diseases are a significant cause of death worldwide. CSTE’s Infectious Disease subcommittees are one of the largest and most active groups within CSTE. The Infectious Disease subcommittees address issues related to: Enteric and Foodborne diseases, Hospital Acquired Infections, HIV/AIDS/ STDs, Influenza, Immunization and Vaccination, Hepatitis, Waterborne, Vectorborne and Zoonotic diseases. In alignment with their respective local, state, and territorial public health departments, CSTE members collaborate with federal public health programs (i.e. CDC, FDA, USDA, etc.) and CSTE sister organizations (i.e. APHL, ASTHO, NACCHO, NASTAD, etc.) to support projects related to infectious disease research, surveillance, preparedness, response, and prevention.

Infectious Disease subcommittee members also work collaboratively with other CSTE program areas (i.e. Public Health Informatics, Surveillance Policy Committee, etc.) to facilitate investigation, identification, diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of disease. In their efforts to prevent further spread of infectious diseases and to encourage timely reporting, CSTE’s Infectious Disease Programs participate yearly in the update and creation of CSTE position statements related to case definitions for various infectious disease as well as placing and removing infectious diseases from the list of Nationally Notifiable Infectious Diseases.

NASPHV

The National Association of State Public Health Veterinarians (NASPHV), a professional organization of over 150 public health veterinarians, was established in 1953 as the Association of State and Territorial Public Health Veterinarians (ASTPHV). Since the early 1990s, the organization has hosted its annual meeting in conjunction with the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists (CSTE) annual conference. The organization works with CSTE and several other partner organizations to promote the role of veterinarians in public health and to address Zoonotic issues of public health concern.

For more information, visit http://www.nasphv.org/.

Other – Subcommittee and/or Workgroup Descriptions

CSTE is home to several infectious disease subcommittees that meet periodically to discuss matters of importance, update and/or create position statements for discussion at the annual CSTE conference, and to develop databases of information for various infectious diseases. These subcommittees include, but are not limited to:

Hospital Acquired Infection Subcommittee
Neonatal Herpes Surveillance Subcommittee
Primary Amebic Meningoencephalitis (PAM) Subcommittee

The HIV/AIDS subcommittee is a committed group of HIV/AIDS Surveillance Coordinators from 65 state and local project areas with many interests and activities surrounding HIV/AIDS surveillance. This subcommittee works with CDC’s HIV Incidence and Case Surveillance Branch and uses its expertise in HIV/AIDS epidemiology to inform CSTE and to effectively use epidemiologic HIV/AIDS data to guide public health practice and to improve the public’s health.

Recently, the subcommittee leadership worked with CDC and NASTAD to create messages and informational materials for the release of new HIV incidence estimates. The subcommittee holds monthly conference calls with surveillance coordinators to discuss current issues as well as overarching topics. The HIV/AIDS subcommittee is also working on a surveillance capacity assessment and an orientation manual for new surveillance coordinators.

Food Safety Image The CSTE Food Safety Subcommittee is made up of public health professionals dedicated to building epidemiology capacity for the detection and prevention of foodborne illness and death. Members of CSTE are dedicated epidemiologists at the local, state and federal levels who are charged with identifying foodborne outbreaks early and preventing wide spread illness from foodborne pathogens.

In the Fall of 2005, CDC along with CSTE convened the Council to Improve Foodborne Outbreak and Response (CIFOR). CIFOR is a multidisciplinary working group convened to increase collaboration across the country, across relevant areas of expertise and across those affected by foodborne outbreaks, in order to reduce the burden of foodborne illness in the United States. Currently, CIFOR members include representatives from CSTE along with the Association of Food and Drug Officials, Association of Public Health Laboratories, Association of State and Territorial Health Officials, CDC, Food and Drug Administration, National Association of County and City Health Officials, National Environmental Health Association, and the United States Department of Agriculture.

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Woman with Flu CSTE’s Influenza Subcommittee is made up of public health professional dedicated to identification, preparedness, response, and surveillance of influenza—including seasonal, avian, and pandemic influenza. Through collaborative efforts with CDC’s Influenza Division, CSTE Influenza Subcommittee members have recently provided consultation on influenza surveillance modifications and vaccination recommendations. CSTE has also worked with CDC to provide support for several pilot projects (including the influenza super sentinel pilot project and the advancing strategies to improve influenza surveillance pilot) and provide workforce trainings (including the Role of Public Health in a Multi-Agency Response to Avian Influenza).