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Emergency Department Visits for Influenza A(H1N1)pdm09, Davidson County, Tennessee, USA - Vol. 18 No. 5 - May 2012 - Emerging Infectious Disease journal - CDC

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Emergency Department Visits for Influenza A(H1N1)pdm09, Davidson County, Tennessee, USA - Vol. 18 No. 5 - May 2012 - Emerging Infectious Disease journal - CDC



Volume 18, Number 5—May 2012

Dispatch

Emergency Department Visits for Influenza A(H1N1)pdm09, Davidson County, Tennessee, USA

Wesley H. Self, Carlos G. Grijalva, Yuwei Zhu, H. Keipp Talbot, Astride Jules, Kyle E. Widmer, Kathryn M. Edwards, John V. Williams, David K. Shay, and Marie R. GriffinComments to Author
Author affiliations: Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee, USA (W.H. Self, C.G. Grijalva, Y. Zhu, H.K. Talbot, A. Jules, K.E. Widmer, K.M. Edwards, J.V. Williams, M.R. Griffin); Veterans Affairs Tennessee Valley Health Care System, Nashville (W.H. Self, M.R. Griffin); Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia, USA (D.K. Shay)
Suggested citation for this article

Abstract

To determine the number of emergency department visits attributable to influenza A(H1N1)pdm09 in Davidson County, Tennessee, USA, we used active, population-based surveillance and laboratory-confirmed influenza data. We estimated ≈10 visits per 1,000 residents during the pandemic period. This estimate should help emergency departments prepare for future pandemics.
The 2009 pandemic influenza (H1N1) strain, hereafter referred to as influenza A(H1N1)pdm09, had the potential to substantially increase visits to emergency departments, many of which operate at or near capacity (15). Surges in emergency department patient volume cause treatment delays, low quality care, and increased risk for medical error (6). Understanding the number of visits associated with influenza A(H1N1)pdm09 should help emergency departments prepare for future influenza epidemics. We therefore estimated population-based emergency department visit rates attributable to influenza A(H1N1)pdm09 during the first year it circulated in Davidson County, Tennessee, USA. The Vanderbilt University Institutional Review Board approved this study.

The Study

As part of the Influenza Vaccine Effectiveness network (Flu-VE) (7), we conducted active, prospective, population-based influenza surveillance among residents of Davidson County. We included those who had visited Vanderbilt University adult or pediatric emergency departments for acute respiratory infection (ARI) or fever/feverishness for <14 days during May 1, 2009–March 31, 2010. Nasal and throat swabs were tested for influenza with reverse transcription PCR (RT-PCR) by using primers and probes provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Atlanta, GA, USA) (8). Specimens were classified as A(H1N1)pdm09 virus if results were positive on both pandemic subtyping assays (pandemic A and pandemic H1) or positive for influenza A, negative for seasonal subtypes H1 and H3, and positive on 1 pandemic subtyping assay.
We obtained the number of emergency department visits associated with ARI or fever (International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision, Clinical Modification, codes 381–382, 460–466, 480–487, 490–493, 786, and 780.6) from the Tennessee Hospital Discharge Data System (HDDS) (9), which is required to include a record of every hospital-based health care encounter. We combined data from Flu-VE RT-PCRs, influenza test results obtained clinically in the surveillance emergency departments, and HDDS discharge diagnoses to calculate age-specific visit rates attributable to influenza A(H1N1)pdm09. We used 2 epidemiologic methods: surveillance sampling and capture–recapture.

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