Office of Border Health

Border Influenza Network

The Border Influenza Surveillance Network of the Paso del Norte Region Southwestern New Mexico, Far West Texas, Northern Chihuahua 2011-2012 Update

The BISN continued into the 2011-2012 influenza season with the following goals:

• Promote real-time binational infectious disease surveillance

• Enhance regional influenza surveillance capacity and reporting

• Continue laboratory proficiency and communications on both sides of the border regarding influenza testing and results reporting

• Develop capacity for responding to possible influenza pandemics

 

For this 2011-12 influenza season, there are 13 sites reporting to the BISN of the Paso del Norte Region

• 5 sites in Southwestern New Mexico

• 3 sites in Far West Texas

• 5 sites in Northern Chihuahua

 

The reporting standards are as follows:

• Continue the use of the Influenza-like Illness (ILI)/Enfermedad Tipo Influenza (ETI) clinical case definition of fever and cough and/or sore throat.

• Continue the weekly reporting of ILI/ETI cases (out of total number patients) and any lab results, which includes rapid tests and laboratory specimens.

• Continue the weekly compilation and distribution of BISN report, which would be the responsibility of the New Mexico BIDS officer.

 

The following two graphs show the trends in ILI activity for the 2011-2012 influenza season, as compared to last year’s influenza season, for the entire Paso del Norte Region Network and for each Region within the network:

At each influenza sentinel site, clinicians are testing identified ILI patients with on-site rapid tests, or quick tests, that will produce results for influenza and the type within 10 minutes.  Those ILI patients who undergo a rapid test, resulting positive or negative, are encouraged to have a second sample taken for laboratory confirmation. These specimens are generally sent to the state public health laboratory in the jurisdiction of each site. Influenza specimens are tested for the virus using the PCR technique, specifically the real time RT-PCR (reverse transcription – polymerase chain reaction), in most instances.

Note: Not all ILI-positive patients are tested with rapid tests or have a specimen collected for laboratory PCR confirmation.

* Rapid tests were conducted at the sentinel clinic site and results were reported the week the sample was taken

^PCR tests were conducted in a laboratory setting and results were reported during the week they were confirmed, not necessarily the week the sample was collected

                                 

The following graphs shows a breakdown of the total samples submitted from the BISN sentinel sites to the respective state laboratories, as well as the reference laboratory in El Paso that conducts virologic surveillance through the El Paso Public Health Department influenza program. 

 

The virologic data from the Juarez, Chihuahua sites has not been included in the total for specimens submitted count due to the fact that complete submission data and number testing negative has not been made available. Therefore, only the number of positive tests and their type/subtype are displayed in the following graph, as submitted by the Juarez Health Jurisdiction, II.

*Identificación de casos  confirmados a Influenza A H1N1 pdm, según semana epidemiologica de inicio de sintomas, captados en las unidades centinela de influenza y considerados en registro del SINAVE por su consideración de  unidad monitora de influenza (USMI).

 

For a summary on last season’s influenza activity (2010-2011), please click here for the presentation given at the BISN Evaluation Meeting in September 2011

Summary and Evaluations: 2008-2009, 2009-2010 influenza seasons