Overcoming Operational Differences to Attain a National Picture for Novel Threats

Soon after discovery of a MERS case in Indiana, CDC through its BioSense Syndromic Surveillance (SyS) Program joined with certain public health jurisdictions to improve the national-level MERS surveillance picture. Activities were undertaken to bolster local surveillance efforts, despite jurisdictions use of differing SyS tools. This resulted in the ability to generate periodic reports of aggregated MERS-like surveillance data. Many seem to see this initiative to enhance the national MERS surveillance picture as a model to build upon, and a success that can help improve trust and generate hope for creating a meaningful national SyS picture.