Acute flaccid myelitis (AFM) is a condition that affects the nervous system, specifically the spinal cord. Most people who experience AFM will have limb weakness, but some people also experience facial droop/weakness, difficulty moving the eyes, drooping eyelids, and difficulty swallowing or slurred speech. Numbness or tingling is rare, and some people experience pain in their arms and legs. Severe symptoms include respiratory failure as a result of breathing muscles that become weak. AFM has no specific treatment, but interventions may be ordered by a doctor on a case-by-case basis.
Acute Flaccid Myelitis (AFM) has a variety of causes, but viral infections such as enteroviruses (polio and non-polio), West Nile Virus and those viruses in the same family, herpes viruses, and adenoviruses have been attributed to the cause of AFM. You can prevent AFM by being up to date on all recommended vaccinations, including poliovirus. You can also protect yourself and your family from mosquito borne viruses that can cause AFM by using mosquito repellent and staying indoors at dawn and dusk. Other ways you can protect yourself from causes of AFM are:
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Syndromic surveillance is part of one of the three core public health functions: assessment, policy development and assurance. Assessment entails:
As part of the assessment function, public health officials and practitioners use syndromic surveillance to monitor the health status of a population and make decisions that impact the health of these populations. Syndromic surveillance is special because it is near real-time data, which allows for situational awareness and for decisions to be made based on what is currently happening versus what has happened in the past. A great example of syndromic surveillance in action is when we are able to detect an increase in illness during an event, such as Hot August Nights or the Rib Cook-Off. We may see an increase in hospital or urgent care visits for gastrointestinal illness, which would alert us that the event needs further attention. Syndromic surveillance is a great tool that we have at our disposal to navigate these situations, deploy appropriate resources and implement targeted interventions. At this time, approximately 80% of hospitals and 10% of urgent cares statewide are reporting their data at least daily. Moving forward, Nevada will make a strong push to get more urgent cares on board. Another way we can use syndromic surveillance is through the National Retail Data Monitoring System (NRDM). This system looks at over-the-counter drug sales and alerts us if there is an unexpected increase in the sales of specific medicine categories. Of course, it takes promotional sales into consideration and adjusts for it. Here are the medications NRDM tracks: While this system has great capabilities, it’s important to remember that not every store sends their sales data to NRDM so there are some gaps in coverage.
Syndromic surveillance is a great tool to serve as an early warning system for public health events. While originally developed to detect a large scale release of a biological agent, it has been utilized in many different ways. On the national level it has been used to track things like infectious disease outbreaks and pandemics, mass gatherings, natural and man-made disasters, injuries, chronic conditions and utilization of health care. For more information on the National Syndromic Surveillance Program, see https://www.cdc.gov/nssp/overview.html For more information on Nevada’s Syndromic Surveillance Program, see http://dpbh.nv.gov/Programs/BioSense/Syndromic_Surveillance_-Home/ |
AuthorOPHIE records and analyzes data from disease investigations, identifies risk factors, and provides education on disease prevention in Nevada. Archives
November 2018
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