News Release              For Immediate Release                                                                                                              February 3, 2006

Emergency Room Surveillance Identifies Disease Outbreaks

Grey-Bruce hospitals are taking part in an emergency room surveillance system that provides early detection of disease outbreak.  Called ECADS, The Early CBRN (Chemical/Biological/Radiological/Nuclear) Attack Detection Surveillance was first developed for military use to identify bio-terrorism.  By monitoring symptoms from patients at local emergency departments, the system provides Public Health officials with an early warning to potential disease outbreaks.

 Lead for the pilot project Dr. Richard Davies stated that if ECADS were in place in 2000 the system would have provided an early alert of the Walkerton e-coli outbreak several days before the boil water advisory was issued. “Based on the data we collected it was really quite good at detecting the outbreak.” said Dr. Davies.

“ECADS is a very valuable system for monitoring the general health of this area, both acute and infection disease as well as chronic disease.” says Medical Officer of Health Dr. Hazel Lynn.

For further information, call Public Health at 376-9420

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For more information:

Dr. Hazel Lynn

Medical Officer of Health

Grey Bruce Health Unit

(519) 376-9420, ext 269