Joan Patricia Baumbach ^1*, Mark Mueller ¹, Chad Smelser ¹, Bernadette Albanese ², C. Mack Sewell ¹

¹ New Mexico Department of Health
² Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment

^* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: joan.baumbach{at}state.nm.us.

	Abstract

Objectives. We sought to determine whether monitoring rapid influenza laboratory tests improved the influenza-like illness surveillance already in place in New Mexico.

Methods. For the past 3 influenza seasons, the New Mexico Department of Health examined influenza-like illness visits and positive rapid influenza test results.

Results. The proportion of positive rapid influenza test results started to rise earlier than did the percentage of clinical visits because of influenza-like illness in each of the past 3 influenza seasons: 5 weeks earlier during the 2004–2005 season; 3 weeks earlier in 2005–2006; and 2 weeks earlier in 2006–2007. In addition, rapid influenza tests showed a spike in influenza B activity late in the 2005–2006 season that influenza-like illness syndrome surveillance did not.

Conclusions. Laboratory-based rapid influenza test surveillance required relatively few resources to implement and offered a sensitive mechanism to detect the onset of influenza activity while allowing for the distinction of influenza types.

Key Words: Epidemiology, Immunization/Vaccines, Public Health Practice, Surveillance