Citation

Shumate AM, Yard EE, Casey-Lockyer M, Apostolou A, Chan M, Tan C, Noe RS, Wolkin AF. Disaster Med. Public Health Prep. 2015; 10(3): 525-528.

Affiliation

2The National Center for Environmental Health,Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,Atlanta,Georgia.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2015, Society for Disaster Medicine and Public Health, Publisher Cambridge University Press)

DOI

10.1017/dmp.2015.164

PMID

26677756

Abstract

Timely morbidity surveillance of sheltered populations is crucial for identifying and addressing their immediate needs, and accurate surveillance allows us to better prepare for future disasters. However, disasters often create travel and communication challenges that complicate the collection and transmission of surveillance data. We describe a surveillance project conducted in New Jersey shelters after Hurricane Sandy, which occurred in November 2012, that successfully used cellular phones for remote real-time reporting. This project demonstrated that, when supported with just-in-time morbidity surveillance training, cellular phone reporting was a successful, sustainable, and less labor-intensive methodology than in-person shelter visits to capture morbidity data from multiple locations and opened a two-way communication channel with shelters. (Disaster Med Public Health Preparedness. 2015;0:1-4).

Language: en