Emerging Infectious Diseases
[Volume 5 No.2 / March - April 1999]


Suggested Citation

News and Notes

Automation in Threat Reduction and Infectious Disease Research: Needs and
New Directions April 29-30, 1999

A scientific colloquium entitled Automation in Threat Reduction and
Infectious Disease Research: Needs and New Directions will be held in
Washington, D.C., from April 29 to 30, 1999. Sponsors are the Association
for Laboratory Automation; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention;
Department of Energy; Department of Health and Human Services; Los Alamos
National Laboratory; National Academy of Engineering; and University of
California, Los Angeles.

The colloquium will focus on measuring, detecting, and monitoring in these
areas: 1) recognizing and addressing established and emerging infectious
diseases, 2) ensuring a safe food supply, 3) averting catastrophic
bioterrorism and biowarfare, and 4) advancing human genetics and molecular
medicine. It will also address automation, robotic, computer, information,
Internet, and microscale laboratory methods available to address needs in
these areas. The meeting's objective is to identify specific scientific
needs, assess research practices and their limitations, and then consider
strategic ways for integrating new high-throughput laboratory tools and
methods. In addition, the 2-day program has an educational component
designed for policy makers. The colloquium will emphasize a cross-cutting
approach, which recognizes that new tools and methods from one scientific
discipline can be applied to other scientific disciplines.

To obtain additional information or register for the colloquium, visit the
following web sites:

   * http://www.nae.edu/colloquium
   * http://labautomation.org/colloquium/home.html

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Emerging Pathogens Initiative: An Automated Surveillance System

The Veterans Health Administration, Department of Veterans Affairs (VA),
debuted its nationwide computer-based Emerging Pathogens Initiative on
October 1, 1998. The initiative is an automated surveillance system that
collects data from all 171 VA medical centers (from 146 reporting sites) on
14 specific pathogens or diseases: vancomycin-resistant enterococcus,
penicillin-resistant pneumococcus, Escherichia coli O157, Candida
bloodstream infections, Clostridium difficile, Cryptosporidium, dengue,
antibody-positive hepatitis C, Legionella, leishmaniasis, malaria,
tuberculosis, group A streptococcus, and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. Other
information (e.g., patient demographics, antimicrobial susceptibility where
appropriate, co-morbidities, and number of patients by facility) is also
collected and downloaded into a central database on a monthly basis. After
aggregate reports are compiled, the 22 VA patient-care networks will
receive network-specific data, along with national VA quartile rankings.
For further information, contact Gary A. Roselle, M.D., program director
for infectious diseases, VA Headquarters, at 513-475-6398.

 Erratum Vol. 5, No. 1

 In the article, "Genetic Diversity and Distribution of Peromyscus-Borne
 Hantaviruses in North America," by Martha Monroe et al., on page 85,
 reference 8 should read Mills JN, Ksiazek TG, Ellis BA, Rollin PE,
 Nichol ST, Yates TL, et al. Patterns of association with host and
 habitat: Antibody reactive with Sin Nombre virus in small mammals in the
 major biotic communities of the southwestern United States. Am J Trop
 Med Hyg 1997;56:273-84. We apologize to our readers for this error.


Emerging Infectious Diseases
National Center for Infectious Diseases
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Atlanta, GA

URL: ftp://ftp.cdc.gov/pub/EID/vol5no2/ascii/newsnotes.txt

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