COCA News and Announcements

Recent COCA Call

2016-2017 Influenza Season Activity and Recommendations for Clinicians
Date: Thursday, February 16, 2017
During this COCA Call, clinicians learned about 2016–2017 influenza activity to date, and heard an overview of CDC’s recommendations for healthcare providers including influenza vaccination and the use of antiviral medications for the treatment of influenza.
https://emergency.cdc.gov/coca/calls/2017/callinfo_021617.asp

Archived COCA conference calls are available at emergency.cdc.gov/coca/calls/index.asp.
Free continuing education (CME, CNE, ACPE, CEU, CECH, and AAVSB/RACE) is available for most calls. For more information about free CE, visit emergency.cdc.gov/coca/continuingeducation.asp

CDC Emergency Response

2016 Zika Virus

General Resources

NEW: Transmission of Zika Virus — Haiti, October 12, 2015–September 10, 2016
Haiti’s Ministry of Public Health and Population has established sentinel Zika surveillance and laboratory testing and has implemented a public health response to Zika.
https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/66/wr/mm6606a4.htm?s_cid=mm6606a4_w

Zika Virus Information for Healthcare Providers
CDC's Zika webpage for healthcare provider resources.
http://www.cdc.gov/zika/hc-providers/index.html

Key Messages—Zika Virus
A collection of the most up-to-date, cleared information on the ongoing Zika virus outbreak
http://www.cdc.gov/zika/pdfs/zika-key-messages.pdf

Print Resources in Different Languages
CDC fact sheets and posters for distribution to patients are available in Spanish, Portuguese, Arabic, Tagalog, Vietnamese, Mandarin, Creole, Korean, and other languages. These resources cover a variety of topics, including travel information, insect repellent, sexual transmission, and mosquito control.
http://www.cdc.gov/zika/fs-posters/index.html

Clinicians Caring for Pregnant Women and Women of Reproductive Age

Pregnancy and Zika Testing
http://www.cdc.gov/zika/hc-providers/testing-for-zikavirus.html

U.S. Zika Pregnancy Registry
CDC and state, tribal, local, and territorial health departments request that healthcare providers, especially obstetric and pediatric healthcare providers, participate in the U.S. Zika Pregnancy Registry.
http://www.cdc.gov/zika/hc-providers/registry.html

Clinical Guidance for Healthcare Providers Caring for Pregnant Women
http://www.cdc.gov/zika/hc-providers/pregnant-woman.html

Clinical Guidance for Healthcare Providers Caring for Women of Reproductive Age
http://www.cdc.gov/zika/hc-providers/women-reproductive-age.html

Clinicians Caring for Infants and Children

Clinical Guidance for Healthcare Providers Caring for Infants and Children
http://www.cdc.gov/zika/hc-providers/infants-children.html

Sexual Transmission

Zika and Sexual Transmission
http://www.cdc.gov/zika/transmission/sexual-transmission.html

Travel Information

Zika Travel Information
http://wwwnc.cdc.gov/travel/page/zika-information

Advice for People Living in or Traveling to Brownsville, Texas
On December 14, 2016, CDC issued guidance related to Zika for people living in or traveling to Brownsville, Cameron County, TX, and has designated Brownsville as a Zika cautionary area (yellow area). On November 28, the Texas Department of State Health Services reported the state’s first case of local mosquito-borne Zika virus infection in Brownsville. Additional cases of mosquito-borne Zika have been identified in the area, suggesting that there is a risk of continued spread of Zika virus in Brownsville.
https://www.cdc.gov/zika/intheus/texas-update.html

Clinical Evaluation and Testing

Guidance for U.S. Laboratories Testing for Zika Virus Infection
https://www.cdc.gov/zika/laboratories/lab-guidance.html

Clinical Evaluation and Disease
http://www.cdc.gov/zika/hc-providers/preparing-for-zika/clinicalevaluationdisease.html

Testing for Zika
https://www.cdc.gov/zika/hc-providers/testing-for-zikavirus.html

State, Local, Tribal, and Territorial Health Department Resources

NEW: CDC U.S. Zika Pregnancy Registry Healthcare Provider Toolkit for Health Departments
This toolkit is a suite of tools and resources to help health departments educate and inform healthcare providers to identify, counsel, report, and follow infants born to pregnant women with laboratory evidence of Zika virus infection. We invite you to use this toolkit to raise awareness about the U.S. Zika Pregnancy Registry and improve reporting and completeness of data collected.
For Obstetricians: https://www.cdc.gov/zika/pdfs/uszpr_toolkit_ob.pdf
For Pediatricians: https://www.cdc.gov/zika/pdfs/uszpr_toolkit_peds.pdf

CDC Zika Interim Response Plan
The purpose of this document is to describe the CDC response plan for locally acquired cases of Zika virus infection in the continental United States and Hawaii.
https://www.cdc.gov/zika/public-health-partners/cdc-zika-interim-response-plan.html

State, Local, Tribal, and Territorial Health Department Resources
https://www.cdc.gov/zika/public-health-partners/index.html

CDC News and Announcements

NEW: CDC Hosts Vector Control Experts to Discuss Strategies to Combat Aedes aegypti Mosquitoes
CDC, in collaboration with the CDC Foundation, will convene a two-day meeting February 27–28, 2017, to exchange facts and information about options and methods for monitoring and controlling Aedes aegypti mosquitoes and to reduce the burden of illness in people from Zika and other diseases transmitted by this mosquito. More than 150 expert scientists from around the world have been invited to report on the state of the science, successes and challenges of existing mosquito control options, innovative methods to control mosquitoes, and to give input on the design of large, well-controlled epidemiologic studies to evaluate these tools. The opening and closing sessions will be webcast.
https://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2017/a0223-vector-control.html

CDC Science Clips: Volume 9, Issue: 7
Each week, select science clips are shared with the public health community to enhance awareness of emerging scientific knowledge. The focus is applied public health research and prevention science that has the capacity to improve health now.
www.cdc.gov/library/sciclips/issues/

Public Health Preparedness

Emergency Preparedness and Response for Health Professionals – (CDC)
Find preparedness resources for health professionals at
http://emergency.cdc.gov/health-professionals.asp

Emergency Preparedness and Response Training Resources for Clinicians – (CDC)
Find online and in-person training resources at
emergency.cdc.gov/coca/trainingresources.asp

Natural Disasters and Severe Weather

Winter Weather – (CDC)
http://www.cdc.gov/disasters/winter/index.html

Food and Water Needs: Preparing for a Disaster or Emergency – (CDC)
http://www.cdc.gov/disasters/foodwater/

Health and Safety Concerns for All Disasters – (CDC)
http://www.cdc.gov/disasters/index.html

Infectious, Vector-Borne, and Zoonotic Diseases

Seasonal Influenza

NEW: Interim Estimates of 2016-17 Flu Vaccine Effectiveness
Early estimates indicate that flu vaccines this season have reduced a vaccinated person’s risk of getting sick and needing medical care because of flu by about half. During the 2016-17 flu season, Vaccine has been 43% effective against the predominant influenza A (H3N2) viruses and 73% effective against influenza B viruses.
https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/66/wr/mm6606a3.htm?s_cid=mm6606a3_e

Weekly U.S. Influenza Surveillance Report: Flu View – February 11 (CDC)
Flu View is a weekly influenza surveillance report prepared by CDC’s Influenza Division. All data are preliminary and may change as CDC receives more reports.
http://www.cdc.gov/flu/weekly/

Information for Health Professionals – (CDC)
The pages listed offer public health and healthcare professionals key information about vaccination, infection control, prevention, treatment, and diagnosis of seasonal influenza
http://www.cdc.gov/flu/professionals/index.htm

2016–2017 Flu Season – (CDC)
https://www.cdc.gov/flu/fluvaxview/1617season.htm

Travel Safety

Current Travel Warnings – February 22 (U.S. Department of State)
The U.S. Department of State issues Travel Warnings when long-term, protracted conditions make a country dangerous or unstable. Travel Warnings recommend that Americans avoid or carefully consider the risk of travel to that country. The State Department also issues Travel Warnings when the U.S. government's ability to assist American citizens is constrained due to the closure of an embassy or consulate or because of a drawdown of State Department staff.
travel.state.gov/content/passports/english/alertswarnings.html

Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR)

MMWR publications are prepared by CDC. To electronically subscribe, go to www.cdc.gov/mmwr/mmwrsubscribe.html

February 24, 2017 / Vol. 66 / No. 7 Download .pdf document of this issue

Food, Drug, and Device Safety

NEW: Comprehensive Reverse Shoulder by Zimmer Biomet: Class I Recall - High Fracture Rate
Zimmer Biomet is recalling the Comprehensive Reverse Shoulder because these devices are fracturing at a higher rate than is stated in the labeling. Fractures may result in revision surgeries which could cause serious adverse health consequences such as permanent loss of shoulder function, infection, or rarely, death.
https://www.fda.gov/Safety/MedWatch/SafetyInformation/SafetyAlertsforHumanMedicalProducts/ucm542030.htm

MedWatch: The FDA Safety Information and Adverse Event Reporting Program – (FDA)
MedWatch is your FDA gateway for clinically important safety information and reporting serious problems with human medical products.
http://www.fda.gov/Safety/MedWatch/default.htm

FoodSafety.gov: Reports of FDA and USDA Food Recalls, Alerts, Reporting, and Resources – (HHS/USDA/FDA/CDC/NIH)
Foodsafety.gov lists notices of recalls and alerts from both FDA and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Visitors to the site can report a problem or make inquiries.
www.foodsafety.gov/recalls/recent/index.html

Released: February 28, 2017 10:01 AM | Updated: February 28, 2017 10:01 AM

Keywords: AAOHN News

COCA Update: New US Zika Pregnancy Registry Healthcare Provider Toolkit for Health Departments