BACKGROUND: Vector surveillance is used to monitor the geographical distribution of the vector population over time and facilitate appropriate and timely decisions regarding interventions of vector-borne diseases. In New York State, mosquito, mammal and tick specimens are submitted to the state public health lab for testing West Nile, East Equine Encephalitis (EEE), Zika, and Lyme diseases. A vector surveillance system is important for the early detection and rapid control of diseases and can be cost-effective and efficient with limited resources by using the existing infrastructure built for human surveillance.
METHODS: Three electronic surveillance systems are in place for human infectious disease surveillance: Clinical Laboratory Information Management System(CLIMS) is used by the public health lab to track specimens and report test results; Electronic Clinical Laboratory Reporting System (ECLRS) is used by clinical labs to submit test results for all reportable conditions; Communicable Disease Electronic Surveillance System (CDESS) is used by local health departments (LHDs) for conducting case investigations, implementing prevention and control measures. A vector surveillance module was developed in CDESS to allow LHDs to enter mosquito, mammal and tick collection information. The test results are automatically transmitted from CLIMS to the ECLRS using Health Level 7(HL7) format. The ECLRS was enhanced to add a HL7 specimen table and existing human surveillance processes were used to obtain test results and automatically transfer them to CDESS. The vector surveillance module also utilizes the existing CDESS reporting module to provide users the flexibility to query and extract data of their choosing. The CDESS GIS module was enhanced to create a map by distribution of specimen test results overlay with distribution of human test results.
RESULTS: The mosquito module was rolled out in May 2016 in time for Zika surveillance. A non-human species of mosquito and mammal lookup table was created to allow public health lab to report test results using HL7 v 2.5.1 standards. As of 11/30/2016, 5,917 mosquito pools were tested and 261 (4.4%) pools were positive for West Nile, 29 pools were positive for other viruses, and the Minimum Infection Rate was 1.2 for West Nile. There were no pools positive for Zika virus. Various reports have been created for monitoring the surveillance of vectors and vector-borne diseases.
CONCLUSIONS: The vector surveillance module provides timely, accurate and consistent information to all stakeholders in monitoring vector population and vector-borne diseases. It is cost-effective and efficient to build the vector surveillance system using existing resources and infrastructure.