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Selected Accomplishments of the EIP Network

• Foodborne pathogens cause an estimated 76 million illnesses, 325,000 hospitalizations, and 5,000 deaths in the United States each year. EIP/FoodNet data documented recent declines in major bacterial foodborne illnesses, including infections caused by Yersinia, Listeria, Campylobacter, and Salmonella, at FoodNet sites (see MMWR 2002;51 (15):325-329).
  
  
• Since its emergence in the 1970s, group B streptococcus (GBS) disease has been the leading invasive bacterial infection associated with illness and death among newborns in the United States. Data developed through the EIP/ABCs provided a basis for revisions to recommendations for the prevention of perinatal group B streptococcal disease. Universal screening is now recommended. (see MMWR Recommendations and Reports 2002;51 (RR-11):1-22).
  
  
• The EIP Unexplained Deaths and Critical Illnesses project has developed methods for evaluating severe syndromes indicating infection. This enhanced syndrome-based surveillance approach holds potential for improving laboratory diagnostics.
  
  
• The EIP maintains sufficient flexibility for emergency response capacity and is able to address new problems as they arise:
  • In 1996 a rapid survey of neurologists, neuropathologists, and pathologists and a review of death certificate data at EIP sites provided some assurance that variant Creutzfeld Jacob Disease (vCJD) was not occurring in EIP states (see MMWR 1996; 45(31):665-668).
    
    
  • EIP resources are routinely used to facilitate infectious disease outbreak investigations (see Jones et al. An Outbreak of Community-Acquired Foodborne Illness Caused by Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus. Emerg Infect Dis 2002; 8(1):82-84.)
    
    
• ABCs established definitive ranges for the age- and serotype-specific incidence of invasive pneumococcal disease, which contributed to the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practice's recommendations regarding the future use of a pneumococcal conjugate vaccine in children.
  
  
• The burden of chronic liver disease (of both viral and nonviral etiology) in well-defined populations was found to be significantly higher than previously reported. The estimated incidence of newly-diagnosed liver disease was 31/100,000 in 1998, a figure nearly three times the rate found when it was last measured in 1989.