EPI Update  

Items for this week’s EPI Update include:

• Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus
• Doxycycline shortage
• CDC releases new H7N9 testing recommendations
• Meeting announcements and training opportunities

Items for this week’s EPI Update include:

• Report immediately!
• Hepatitis A related to frozen fruit product
• West Nile virus surveillance begins
• Meeting announcements and training opportunities

Items for this week’s EPI Update include:

• Increase in cases of Shigellosis
• Flooding and health concerns
• John Snow’s contributions
• Meeting announcements and training opportunities

Items for this week’s EPI Update include:

• Effective tick repellents
• Norovirus testing available
• Influenza surveillance report published monthly over the summer
• An updated obituary
• Meeting announcements and training opportunities

Items for this week’s EPI Update include:

• Novel coronavirus update
• Proper specimen storage for rabies samples
• National recreational water illness and injury prevention
• Microcystin poisoning continues designation as a reportable disease
• Meeting announcements and training opportunities

Items for this week’s EPI Update include:

• Discontinuing of virus culture at SHL
• Consider using azithromycin to treat chlamydia
• Hepatitis C testing guidance for clinicians and laboratorians updated to emphasize RNA testing
• Tick season has arrived
• Meeting announcements and training opportunities

Items for this week’s EPI Update include:

• Influenza H7N9 update
• Iowans: aerobic and muscle-strengthening physical activities
• Meeting announcements and training opportunities

Items for this week’s EPI Update include:

• CADE activity update
• Ingesting and aspirating dry cinnamon by children and adolescents
• Meeting announcements and training opportunities

Items for this week’s EPI Update include:

• A possible case of cholera in Iowa
• Influenza update and B/Victoria
• For all facilities performing tuberculin skin tests (TST)
• Flooding and health concerns
• Sexually Transmitted Disease (STD) in Iowa
• Meeting announcements and training opportunities

Items for this week’s EPI Update include:

• Diagnosing scabies
• Influenza A (H7N9) in China: update
• Botulism: a rare but serious condition
• Meeting announcements and training opportunities

Items for this week’s EPI Update include:

• Reminder that VRSA is immediately reportable in Iowa
• Influenza A (H7N9) in China
• Trichinosis rare but still occurs
• Meeting announcements and training opportunities

Items for this week’s EPI Update include:

• The risk of autism is not increased by ‘too many vaccines too soon’
• Norovirus: leading cause of children with diarrhea seeking health care
• Pertussis update
• Meeting announcements and training opportunities

Items for this week’s EPI Update include:

• Agreement allows unused TB medications to be redistributed
• Iowa Statewide Poison Control Center available 24 hours a day
• Shingles vaccine use (including for those who have had shingles)
• Influenza update
• Meeting announcements and training opportunities

Items for this week’s EPI Update include:

• Winter weather and winter illnesses continue
• RSV surveillance nationwide and in Iowa
• Meeting announcements and training opportunities

Items for this week’s EPI Update include:

• Norovirus in long term care and healthcare facilities
• Norovirus training
• CDC Vital Signs: Carbapenem-Resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE)
• Meeting announcements and training opportunities

Items for this week’s EPI Update include:

• Updated recommendations on the use of Tdap for pregnant women
• Influenza activity update
• New guidelines for the treatment of pediatric middle ear infections
• Meeting announcements and training opportunities

Items for this week’s EPI Update include:

• Influenza update
• CDC advisory about Carbapenem-Resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE)
• New app for disease detectives
• Farewell to Dr. Pentella
• Meeting announcements and training opportunities

Items for this week’s EPI Update include:

• Updates on Current Issues
• Send a Health-e-Card to your valentine
• In Defense of a Valentine’s Day Staple
• Meeting announcements and training opportunities

Items for this week’s EPI Update include:

• Outbreak of Salmonella Typhimurium Linked to Hedgehogs
• The Cure for Cholera - Improving Access to Safe Water and Sanitation
• 50-Year Trends in Smoking-Related Mortality in the United States
• Meeting announcements and training opportunities

Items for this week’s EPI Update include:

• Influenza update
• Other respiratory viruses also circulating
• Norovirus training for Clinicians and Public Health
• Updated immunization schedules now available
• Meeting announcements and training opportunities

Items for this week’s EPI Update include:

• Influenza update
• Iowa’s flu vaccine rankings
• New immunization handout available
• OSHA Clinicians webpage resource for healthcare professionals
• Meeting announcements and training opportunities

Items for this week’s EPI Update include:

• Influenza update
• Recommendations use of influenza antiviral medications
• New Tdap School Entry Requirement (7th grade)
• Disease eradication vs. elimination
• Watch your step!
• Meeting announcements and training opportunities

Items for this week’s EPI Update include:

• Comparing this flu season to previous seasons
• Flu vaccine availability in Iowa
• Flu strains in Iowa are susceptible to antiviral medications
• Eradication of Dracunculiasis and Polio
• Binge drinking in females
• Meeting announcements and training opportunities

Items for this week’s EPI Update include:

• FDA expands Tamiflu use for young children
• Pertussis - We are not alone
• Norovirus in Iowa
• Meeting announcements and training opportunities

Items for this week’s EPI Update include:

• Are vaccinated people getting influenza?
• Updated confirmatory influenza test guidance
• Give the influenza vaccine before children return to school
• Influenza and other respiratory viruses update
• Dual influenza type positive case report in Iowa
• Bats in your Christmas tree?
• Meeting announcements and training opportunities

Items for this week’s EPI Update include:

• Tdap in pregnancy (ACIP provisional recommendations)
• Influenza and other respiratory viruses update
• Occupational carbon monoxide exposure during winter weather
• Meeting announcements and training opportunities

Items for this week’s EPI Update include:

• Flu update
• The “stomach flu” is NOT the flu
• Carbon monoxide exposure during winter weather
• Direct secure messaging FREE for six months
• Influenza vaccine poem from JAMA - Myth Dispelled
• Meeting announcements and training opportunities

Items for this week’s EPI Update include:

• Increased number of Syphilis cases in Iowa
• Flu activity has started early and is significantly increasing in Iowa
• Meeting announcements and training opportunities

Items for this week’s EPI Update include:

• H3N2v case identified in Cedar County child
• Youth in US remain at high risk for HIV
• One & Only campaign spotlights safe injection practices
• Meeting announcements and training opportunities

Items for this week’s EPI Update include:

• Please submit suspect VRSA specimens to the State Hygienic Laboratory
• Report shows substance abuse treatment works
• Meeting announcements and training opportunities

Items for this week’s EPI Update include:

• Rapid flu test results should be interpreted with caution
• Mumps testing available at the State Hygienic Laboratory
• Recent article on fungal meningitis outbreak
• Meeting announcements and training opportunities

Items for this week’s EPI Update include:

• Laboratories asked to send influenza specimens to SHL
• Ameridose recalls all products
• Antacids can reduce stomach acid defenses against bacteria
• Meeting announcements and training opportunities

Items for this week’s EPI Update include:

Shigella illness is on the rise

Good night, sleep tight; don’t let the BED BUGS bite

Halloween safety tips from the American Academy of Pediatrics

Meeting announcements and training opportunities

Items for this week’s EPI Update include:

• Multi-state fungal meningitis outbreak update
• Influenza activity update
• Hope for chocolate lovers
• Meeting announcements and training opportunities

Items for this week’s EPI Update include:

• Multi-state fungal meningitis outbreak update
• Influenza activity update
• The season is upon us
• Imagine this…it isn’t hard to do - Infection Prevention Week
• Meeting announcements and training opportunities

Alert #1 -Iowa Update on the

Multistate Outbreak of Meningitis and Stroke

Associated with Potentially Contaminated Steroid Medication

Items for this week’s EPI Update include:

• Multi-state outbreak of fungal meningitis
• TB screening procedures - amended
• Meeting announcements and training opportunities

Items for this week’s EPI Update include:

• Flu virus confirmed to be circulating in Iowa
• When to vaccinate against influenza
• Binge drinking
• Meeting announcements and training opportunities

Items for this week’s EPI Update include:

• Influenza testing algorithm for the 2012-2013 season
• Harvest health concerns from exposure to mold and dust in grain
• New websites to order educational materials at no cost
• Meeting announcements and training opportunities

Items for this week’s EPI Update include:

• West Nile virus activity continues in Iowa
• Rabies vaccine supply
• Adolescent booster dose of Tetanus, Diphtheria, Pertussis (Tdap) vaccine
• Iowa’s annual notifiable disease report
• Meeting announcements and training opportunities

Items for this week’s EPI Update include:

• Iowa influenza surveillance
• Influenza vaccine
• Cold-flu-pertussis
• Hantavirus
• Meeting announcements and training opportunities

Items for this week’s EPI Update include:

• Updates on current issues
• Back to school diseases

Items for this week’s EPI Update include:

• Babesiosis: another tick-borne disease
• Tattoo-associated mycobacterial skin infections
• 2012-13 seasonal influenza vaccine recommendations

Items for this week’s EPI Update include:

• Rabies consultations increasing in recent weeks
• Use of DEET-based insect repellant important for prevention
• Updated gonorrhea treatment guidelines from CDC
• Meeting announcements and training opportunities

Items for this week’s EPI Update include:

• Additional H3N2v cases identified in other states
• Norovirus activity in Iowa
• Meeting announcements and training opportunities

Items for this week’s EPI Update include:

• First 2012 Iowa West Nile virus cases reported
• Recent monkey bites bring attention to B virus risk
• Influenza update

Items for this week’s EPI Update include:

• Investigation of Salmonella Blockley
• False positive test for hepatitis A
• Hepatitis A cluster
• Meeting announcements and training opportunities

Items for this week’s EPI Update include:

• Reuse of single-dose/single-use vials and syringes/needles
• Educational materials still available at no cost
• Comments on the inclusion of occupation information in electronic health records
• IDPH staff changes
• Meeting announcements and training opportunities

Items for this week’s EPI Update include:

• Carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE)
• Hand, foot and mouth disease
• Single dose/single use vials
• Friggatriskaidekaphobia - the fear of Friday the 13th
• Meeting announcements and training opportunities

Items for this week’s EPI Update include:

• Pertussis activity continues in Iowa and updated recommendations for use of Tdap vaccine
• West Nile virus surveillance update
• Meaningful use in Iowa
• Injuries from ingestion of wire bristles from grill-cleaning brushes
• Meeting announcements and training opportunities

Items for this week’s EPI Update include:

• Update on last week’s events
• 2009 Missouri illnesses associated with novel phlebovirus
• Precautions to protect patients in extreme heat
• Fireworks safety
• Questions from the field: diphtheria in a shadow box
• Meeting announcements and training opportunities

Items for this week’s EPI Update include:

• Very busy week with possible foodborne diseases
• States using electronic medical records to track epidemics
• Slipping, tripping, and falling - reducing the risk to healthcare workers
• Meeting announcements and training opportunities

Items for this week’s EPI Update include:

• Falls prevention
• Rabies update
• West Nile virus surveillance begins
• Meeting announcements and training opportunities

Items for this week’s EPI Update include:

• False-positive measles test demonstrates public health importance
• CDC recommends hepatitis C testing for all baby boomers
• WHO warns that gonorrhea is growing resistant to drugs
• Meeting announcements and training opportunities

Items for this week’s EPI Update include:

• Multistate Salmonella outbreak linked to live poultry
• USDA to test beef for additional pathogenic strains of E. coli
• Meeting announcements and training opportunities

Items for this week’s EPI Update include:

• Laundry detergent packet dangers
• Microcystin poisoning continues to designated as a reportable disease
• Meeting announcements and training opportunities

Items for this week’s EPI Update include:

• Whooping cough epidemic declared in Washington State
• National recreational water illness and injury (RWII) prevention week
• Reusable grocery bag spreads norovirus
• New norovirus website
• Mother’s Day malady
• Meeting announcements and training opportunities

Items for this week’s EPI Update include:

• Laboratory acquired Neisseria meningitidis fatality
• Protecting patients when using single-dose/single-use vials
• Salmonella Infantis infections associated with dry dog food
• New pertussis weekly update
• Welcome to new CADE staff
• Meeting announcements and training opportunities

Items for this week’s EPI Update include:

• Toxic vomit can sicken veterinary staff
• Salmonella Bareilly and Nchanga associated with a raw scraped tuna product
• Meeting announcements and training opportunities

Items for this week’s EPI Update include:

• Measles is a public health emergency
• Death rates from unintentional injury among children dropping
• New course: Field Experiences in Public Health
• Severe hand, foot and mouth disease (HFMD) associated with coxsackievirus A6
• Meeting announcements and training opportunities

Items for this week’s EPI Update include:

• Pertussis, Iowa 2012
• Centers for Disease Control (CDC) issues state healthcare-associated infection (HAI) report
• Iowa influenza surveillance weekly report condensed
• For the public’s health
• Meeting announcements and training opportunities

Items for this week’s EPI Update include:

• Tick season is upon us
• Rapid testing for Giardia and Cryptosporidium
• Polio virus is gone from India; just three more countries to go!
• Meeting announcements and training opportunities

Items for this week’s EPI Update include:

• Anhydrous ammonia exposure planning
• Fungal endophthalmitis outbreak
• Ode to dry hands
• Meeting announcements and training opportunities

Items for this week’s EPI Update include:

• New specimen collection instructions for AFB testing
• Chickenpox vaccination reminder
• Influenza update
• Enjoying holiday eggs safely
• Meeting announcements and training opportunities

Items for this week’s EPI Update include:

• Travelers should ensure vaccinations are up-to-date
• Healthy Iowans now available for public comment
• Meeting announcements and training opportunities

Items for this week’s EPI Update include:

• Pertussis activity continues
• Influenza update
• Salmonella and Easter Chicks and Ducklings
• Meeting announcements and training opportunities

Items for this week’s EPI Update include:

• Healthcare-associated infections not limited to hospitals
• Discuss well safety with patients
• Meeting announcements and training opportunities

Items for this week’s EPI Update include:

• Influenza specimens needed for surveillance
• Testing for human rabies
• American Veterinary Medical Association Public Service Award
• Meeting announcements and training opportunities

Items for this week’s EPI Update include:

• Influenza update
• Blood lead test reporting reminder
• Meeting announcements and training opportunities

Items for this week’s EPI Update include:

• Skin infections associated with tattoos
• Foodborne illness linked to clover sprouts
• Update on Adolescent Immunization Schedule
• Meeting announcements and training opportunities

Items for this week’s EPI Update include:

• Recommended Adult Immunization Schedule
• Influenza activity increasing in Iowa
• Meeting announcements and training opportunities

Items for this week’s EPI Update include:

• Optional treatment regimen for latent TB infection
• Update on Nitazoxanide availability from the CDC
• Meeting announcements and training opportunities

Items for this week’s EPI Update include:

• Norovirus continues in Iowa
• Testing for Norovirus at the State Hygienic Laboratory
• Updated Iowa Antibiotic Resistance Task Force Review
• Flu Season Starts Out Slowly
• Meeting announcements and training opportunities

Items for this week’s EPI Update include:

• Hepatitis B vaccination for adults with diabetes
• Progress on polio eradication
• Meeting announcements and training opportunities

Items for this week’s EPI Update include:

• Norovirus toolkit for healthcare settings
• Binge drinking
• Healthcare worker safety linked to patient safety
• HPV-related educational resources
• Correction to last week’s article on new TB test
• HPV4 vaccine article correction
• Meeting announcements and training opportunities

Items for this week’s EPI Update include:

• New TB test at State Hygienic Laboratory
• Healthy living calendar available on IDPH website
• People at high risk of developing flu-related complications
• CDC recommendations for use of PHV4 in males
• Meeting announcements and training opportunities

Items for this week’s EPI Update include:

• If patients are ill, remind them not to cook the holiday meal for others
• Holiday health and safety tips
• Give your patients a prescription for success
• EPI Update schedule over the holidays
• Meeting announcements and training opportunities

Items for this week’s EPI Update include:

• Cold weather brings risk of falls
• Staying safe while staying warm this winter
• Meeting announcements and training opportunities

Items for this week’s EPI Update include:

• Influenza activity update
• Study finds inadequate use of masks among health care workers early in 2009 H1N1 outbreak
• Join the discussion to prevent youth addiction
• Meeting announcements and training opportunities

Items for this week’s EPI Update include:

• Tdap vaccine recommendations broaden
• Skin infection resources available
• Update on immunization of health care personnel
• Meeting announcements and training opportunities

Flu Activity in Iowa Includes a Novel Strain

Items for this week’s EPI Update include:

• First influenza cases of the season
• Pneumococcal vaccine recommendations
• Cooking safe over the holidays
• Omission in last week’s Friday Update
• Meeting announcements and training opportunities

Items for this week’s EPI Update include:

• Anhydrous ammonia exposures
• Preventing antibiotic resistance
• New website on safe disposal of needles and sharps
• Meeting announcements and training opportunities

Items for this week’s EPI Update include:

• New gold standard for influenza detection for diagnostic purposes
• Prevent the spread of norovirus
• Meeting announcements and training opportunities

Items for this week’s EPI Update include:

• ACIP recommendations for Tdap vaccination of pregnant women and others with close infant contact
• FDA update on the use of jet injectors with inactivated influenza vaccines
• Vehicle overturns and older workers dominate 2011 Iowa ag-related fatality stats
• Meeting announcements and training opportunities

Items for this week’s EPI Update include:

• National Listeria outbreak update
• Please tell me what I’ve got: comparing influenza, the cold, and pertussis
• Exposures to hazardous drugs used in chemotherapy
• It’s a Zombie apocalypse! Thank goodness we’re prepared!
• Meeting announcements and training opportunities

Items for this week’s EPI Update include:

• National Listeria outbreak update
• Testing algorithm for the 2011-2012 influenza season
• Making sense of influenza vaccination options
• West Nile virus update
• Meeting announcements and training opportunities

Items for this week’s EPI Update include:

• First Iowa illness related to Listeria outbreak
• Influenza: come out, come out wherever you are
• Alcohol-impaired driving among adults; Iowa’s rate is very high
• Meeting announcements and training opportunities

Items for this week’s EPI Update include:

• IDPH urges annual flu vaccination
• New proposed guidelines for organ transplantation
• Adult smoking in the U.S.

Items for this week’s EPI Update include:

• West Nile virus activity continues in Western Iowa
• Encourage safe practices on the farm
• Autumn outings to orchards and pumpkin patches
• Home food safety mythbusters
• Meeting announcements and training opportunities

Items for this week’s EPI Update include:

• Two human West Nile virus cases confirmed in southwestern Iowa
• Listeria outbreak linked to melon
• Home food safety mythbusters
• Contagion
• National Health Information Technology Week
• Meeting announcements and training opportunities

Items for this week’s EPI Update include:

• Home food safety myth busters
• Early childhood vaccination rates rise in Iowa
• Agriculture health and safety resource
• Meeting announcements and training opportunities

Items for this week’s EPI Update include:

• Influenza vaccine administration factsheets available on the IDPH website
• Home food safety mythbusters
• Study shows posters can help increase hand hygiene practices
• Meeting announcements and training opportunities

Items for this week’s EPI Update include:

• Influenza vaccine recommendations
• New zoonotic disease website
• Meeting announcements and training opportunities

Items for this week’s EPI Update include:

• Positive test results for acute Hepatitis A infection in asymptomatic persons
• College students and meningococcal vaccination
• Recent measles activity in Minnesota
• Meeting announcements and training opportunities

Items for this week’s EPI Update include:

• Back to school plans include immunization check
• Researchers use Twitter to predict spread of the 2009 H1N1 pandemic
• Inhalation anthrax case in Minnesota
• Meeting announcements and training opportunities

Items for this week’s EPI Update include:

• Salmonella Heidelberg outbreak associated with ground turkey
• Canning safety
• Ten greatest achievements in public health
• Meeting announcements and training opportunities

Items for this week’s EPI Update include:

• 2011-2012 season influenza vaccine
• Immunization conference presentations available
• Follow IDPH on Twitter!
• Foodborne illness videos for patients and health care providers
• Ten greatest achievements in public health
• Meeting announcements and training opportunities

Items for this week’s EPI Update include:

• Update on West Nile virus activity
• What is phytophotodermatitis?
• Heat stress safety critical for outdoor workers in the summer months
• Continue to keep pools healthy this summer
• Ten greatest achievements in public health
• Meeting announcements and training opportunities

Items for this week’s EPI Update include:

• Iowa’s annual notifiable disease report
• Outpatient guide and infection prevention checklist
• Rinderpest: historical significance, part II
• Iowa’s deer herd is negative for chronic wasting disease
• Ten greatest achievements in public health
• Meeting announcements and training opportunities

Items for this week’s EPI Update include:

• Food safety at farmers’ markets
• Rinderpest historical significance - Part II
• Ten greatest achievements in public health
• Meeting announcements and training opportunities

Items for this week’s EPI Update include:

• Cattle plague eradicated
• Precautions to protect patients in extreme heat
• Ten greatest achievements in public health
• Meeting announcements and training opportunities

Items for this week’s EPI Update include:

• Mucormycosis following Joplin, Missouri tornado
• Healthy habits during stressful times
• Measles vaccination recommendations for international travel
• West Nile activity in Iowa
• Ten greatest achievements in public health
• Meeting announcements and training opportunities

Items for this week’s EPI Update include:

• Flood-related health information - Mold
• FDA approves treatment for Clostridium difficile infection
• E. coli O104:H4 update
• North Dakota reporting first case of measles
• Foodborne illness website
• Ten greatest achievements in public health #3
• Meeting announcements and training opportunities

Items for this week’s EPI Update include:

• Measles outbreak update
• E. coli O104:H4 in Europe
• 30 years of HIV/AIDS
• Ten greatest achievements in public health
• Meeting announcements and training opportunities

Items for this week’s EPI Update include:

• An increase in measles in the U.S.
• E. coli O104 in Europe
• Tick season is underway
• Ten greatest public health achievements 2001-2010
• Meeting announcements and training opportunities