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This Article Figures Only Full Text Full Text (PDF) All Versions of this Article: AJPH.2007.125450v1 99/S2/S372    most recent Submit a response View Shopping Cart Alert me when this article is cited Alert me when eLetters are posted Alert me if a correction is posted Services Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Google Scholar Articles by Baumbach, J. Articles by Sewell, C. M. PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Baumbach, J. Articles by Sewell, C. M. Related Collections Epidemiology Immunization/Vaccines Other Infections Public Health Practice Surveillance

Joan Baumbach, MD, MPH, Mark Mueller, MPH, Chad Smelser, MD, Bernadette Albanese, MD, MPH and C. Mack Sewell, DrPH, MS

Joan Baumbach, Mark Mueller, Chad Smelser, and C. Mack Sewell are with the New Mexico Department of Health, Santa Fe. Bernadette Albanese is with the El Paso County Department of Public Health and Environment Colorado Springs, CO.

Correspondence: Requests for reprints should be sent to Joan Baumbach, 1190 St Francis Dr, N1350, Santa Fe, NM 87502 (e-mail: joan.baumbach{at}state.nm.us).

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.