Heightened Surveillance for Bioterrorism

Representatives of south Florida county health departments and the Bureau of Epidemiology participated in a conference call on Thursday, October 4, to plan and coordinate heightened surveillance for bioterrorism-related diseases in the aftermath of the September 11 terrorist attacks.

The following counties and Bureau of Epidemiology staffers were represented:

From the Bureau of Epidemiology:

Don Ward, Surveillance
Kathryn Snavely, Surveillance
Jodi Baldy, Investigations
Carina Blackmore, regional epidemiologist
Roger Sanderson, regional epidemiologist
Dolly Katz, regional epidemiologist
Zuber Mulla, regional epidemiologist

South Florida counties:

Lee
Collier
Monroe
Dade
Broward
Palm Beach
Martin
St. Lucie
Indian River
Okeechobee (not on call, but contacted later)

Representatives from each county agreed to contact their local emergency rooms, infection control practitioners, and infectious disease physicians and ask if they have seen any patients since September 11 with fever, shortness of breath, and x-ray evidence of a widened mediastinum. Cliinicians will also be asked to be alert for any new cases with these symptoms.

Each county will contact Dolly Katz with the results (negative or positive) of this survey before the end of the day on Friday.

Contact information for Dolly Katz:

Phone: 305-243-2206 (preferred) or SunCom 473-2759
Cell: 305-778-5421
Toll free pager: 1-877-636-7176
Home: 305-895-9921
Email: Dolly_Katz@doh.state.fl.us

Roger Sanderson will be on call this weekend for emergencies. His contact information:

Phone: 813-974-6305, SunCom 574-6305
Cell: 813-334-1566
Toll free pager: 1-877-653-0885

Gram-positive bacilli isolated from the blood, cerebrospinal fluid, or respiratory fluids of any patients with these symptoms should be sent to our Tampa or Miami branch laboratories or our Jacksonville laboratory, whichever one the county normally uses. Contact persons to be alerted at these labs are:

Jacksonville: Phil Lee; 904-866-1712, SunCom 791-1712

Tampa: Phil Amuso; 813-974-8000, SunCom 574-8000; pager 813-883-6136 or 813-883-6418

Miami: Segaran Pillai; 305-324-2432; SunCom 473-2432.

We will have a conference call at 3:30 p.m. Friday to update the counties on our findings and share any new information. The conference call number is (850) 921-2470 or SC 291-2470.

Attached is an Excel file to use in collecting information about symptomatic patients. If you fax this information to Dolly Katz, please telephone first and make sure she is there, because this is not a secure fax.

Health departments are receiving many calls from the public about protecting themselves against anthrax and other exotic diseases. These persons can be referred to the CDC website, which has excellent information for both the public and clinicians. For information on anthrax or any other disease, go to www.cdc.gov, click on the words "Health Topics A-Z," which can be found at the top, bottom, and side of the page, and then click on the topic of interest.

Any requests from the media should be referred to the public relations staff in Tallahassee. The contact person is Frank Penela at 850-245-4111.