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 subcommittee is a committed group of HIV Surveillance Coordinators from 65 state and local project areas with many interests and activities surrounding HIV surveillance. This subcommittee works with CDC’s HIV Incidence and Case Surveillance Branch and uses its expertise in HIV epidemiology to inform CSTE and to effectively use epidemiologic HIV 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 subcommittee is also working on a surveillance capacity assessment and an orientation manual for new surveillance coordinators.

The HIV subcommittee is announcing the release of the 2009 National Assessment of HIV/AIDS Surveillance Capacity. This assessment represents findings about the current resources, needs, infrastructure and practices of U.S. HIV surveillance programs. In addition to the report, please find links to the assessment questions and summary statistics.

HIV Surveillance Coordinator Orientation Manual
The HIV subcommittee is excited to announce the new HIV Surveillance Coordinator Orientation Manual! This manual is intended for new and existing surveillance coordinators. It provides information on topics such as ‘What a new surveillance coordinator needs to know’, program monitoring and evaluation, about CSTE, and more. The manual offers resources for additional information and includes fact sheets and a comprehensive acronym key. Please contact Lauren Rosenberg at the CSTE National Office for a paper copy of this publication.

Please click here to visit the HIV Contact Board

New CIFOR Guidelines! The Council to Improve Foodborne Outbreak Response (CIFOR) Guidelines for Foodborne Disease Outbreak Response intends to give all agencies a common foundation from which to work and to provide examples of the key activities that should occur during the response to outbreaks of foodborne disease. Copies are being distributed to local, state and federal health agencies, and other stakeholders. Electronic copies are available at the links below.

Front Matter – Foreword, Preface, Acknowledgements, Table of Contents
Chapter 1 – Overview of CIFOR Guidelines
Chapter 2 – Fundamental Concepts of Public Health Surveillance and Foodborne Disease
Chapter 3 – Planning and Preparation
Chapter 4 – Foodborne Disease Surveillance and Outbreak Detection
Chapter 5 – Investigation of Clusters and Outbreaks
Chapter 6 – Control Measures
Chapter 7 – Special Considerations for Multi-Jurisdictional Outbreaks
Chapter 8 – Performance Indicators for Foodborne Disease Programs
Chapter 9 – Legal Preparedness for the Surveillance and Control of Foodborne Disease Outbreaks
Appendices – Glossary, Bad Bug Table, List of Key Websites and Resources Cited

For more information, please contact Lauren Rosenberg at lrosenberg@cste.org.

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.

Click here for more information

EpiVenture - Request for Comments on
Prototype for Web-based Course on Outbreak Investigation Training

EpiVenture is a proposed self-instructional, web-based course that teaches public health practitioners how to investigate food and waterborne disease outbreaks. The course will cover a variety of basic epidemiologic, environmental health, and laboratory topics relevant to outbreak investigation. It will use real-life examples to illustrate the associated principles and practices.

Because the proposed course is self-instructional, it has certain advantages. Learners can fit the instruction into their schedules at their convenience and can progress through the training at their own rates. Learners can select the specific topics they study; they can skip over topics they already know (or don’t need to know) or repeat topics they are having difficulty with. In addition, to take the course, the learner only needs access to the internet.

A prototype for EpiVenture has been developed through funding provided by CDC. The prototype includes only a small portion of the course and focuses on one topic (i.e., case definitions). Nonetheless, the prototype will provide insight into the proposed approach and help determine whether development of the full course is desirable.

Click Here to view the prototype Please disable pop-ups for this exercise

We would appreciate your thoughts about this prototype. Comments can be sent electronically to Jeanette Stehr-Green at jstehrgreen@q.com.

Thank you for your interest in this project. We look forward to hearing from you.

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).