Sentinel Provider Surveillance Network
Influenza sentinels needed to report the who, when and where of circulating flu viruses.
The Michigan Department of Community Health urgently needs physicians to join the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Sentinel Provider Surveillance Network this flu season. Every year, public health officials from MDCH, in cooperation with CDC and local health departments, rely on front-line medical practitioners to act as influenza sentinels to help monitor the impact of the flu in Michigan. New sentinels are urgently needed for the upcoming influenza season.
Flu sentinels volunteer to report the number of cases they see each week due to influenza-like illness and collect clinical specimens from a subset of those patients for virus culture. Physicians and health care professionals in any specialty or setting — with the exception of institutionalized settings such as nursing homes or prisons — may participate.
“Influenza surveillance works when an adequate number of physicians are willing to participate and is only as good as the data they provide,” says Rachel Potter, D.V.M., M.S., epidemiologist, Division of Immunization, MDCH.
These activities usually take less than 30 minutes per week. For their efforts, sentinels receive free laboratory testing for 11 specimens per site per season, weekly influenza activity reports and free, hard-copy subscriptions to CDC publications Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report and Emerging Infectious Diseases. Sentinels who report regularly also receive free registration at one of eight MDCH Regional Immunization Conferences.
For more information, please contact Rachel Potter at 517-335-9710 or potterr1@michigan.gov with questions or to enroll.
