Communicable Diseases Surveillance & Prevention

The Communicable Diseases Surveillance and Prevention program is comprised of the New York State (NYS) Emerging Infections Program (EIP) and Healthcare Associated Infection (HAI) Prevention Collaboratives. The HAI Prevention Collaboratives ended in 2020.

The NYS EIP is part of the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention's national effort to provide population-based communicable disease data to identify disease patterns, evaluate vaccine programs, and to identify populations at risk. The data is used to evaluate public health interventions and inform policy. EIP projects include studies of risk factors for disease caused by SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19), influenza and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) requiring hospital admission, invasive Staphylococcus aureus disease, disease caused by antibiotic-resistant gram-negative bacteria, surveillance for cervical cancer and cervical cancer precursors caused by Human papillomavirus (HPV), and Clostridioides difficile (C. difficile) in healthcare and community settings.

The HAI Prevention Collaboratives focused on prevention of central line associated bloodstream infection and C. difficile infections in the Rochester hospitals and long-term care facilities.

The work performed in the Center for Community Health & Prevention’s EIP and the HAI Collaborative groups serves as a foundation for research studies and informs public health practice and policy at the local, state and national levels.

Emerging Infections Programs (EIP)

Our EIP projects include studies of risk factors for SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19), influenza and RSV disease requiring hospital admission, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), methicillin-sensitive Staphylococcus aureus (MSSA), Clostridioides difficile, and disease caused by drug-resistant gram-bacteria such as negative pseudomanas aeurginosa and Carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae in healthcare and community settings.

• SARS-CoV-2 
• Influenza Hospitalization Surveillance
• Clostridioides difficile Surveillance
• Invasive Staphylococcus aureus Surveillance
• RSV Hospitalization Surveillance
• HPV Vaccine Impact
• Drug-Resistant Bacteria (MuGSI)
• Healthcare-Associated Infections (HAI) and Antimicrobial Use Prevalence Survey

HAI Prevention Collaboratives (HAI)

The HAI Collaboratives developed quality assessment methods to monitor infections of interest to our surrounding community.

• C. difficile Infection Reduction Collaborative
• Rochester Nursing Home Collaborative
• CLABSI: Central Line Associated Blood Stream Infections Outside the ICU