Outbreak Response

BIDS partners play a key role in detecting outbreaks and facilitating binational investigations and control efforts in the border region. Several key examples include the following:

• BIDS sites provide early warnings to local health department staff about outbreaks of measles, hepatitis A, rubella, dengue, and dengue hemorrhagic fever along the border region.
• Surveillance activities at BIDS sites helped better define the epidemiology and burden of hepatitis A, B, and C. They also helped control and document the decline and elimination of measles and rubella in the northern border region of Mexico.
• BIDS partners conduct ongoing influenza surveillance, contributing to cross-border preparedness for influenza and bioterrorism.
• In 1999 and 2005, BIDS partners conducted binational dengue outbreak investigations in Texas/Tamaulipas and detected the first case of locally acquired dengue hemorrhagic fever in the United States.
• In 1999, BIDS partners identified the first reports of West Nile virus infection in El Paso, Texas, and California.
• In 2003, the BIDS network helped track the origin of one of the largest hepatitis A outbreaks in the United States to green onions imported from Mexico.
• In 2004-2005, BIDS partners contributed to Mexican soft cheese associated Salmonella  investigations in California.
• In 2009, BIDS partners made the second viral detection of novel H1N1 influenza A in California, triggering the start of the pandemic H1N1 investigation.
• In 2009, BIDS partners conducted an investigation of a cluster of Rocky Mountain spotted fever (RMSF) in Mexicali. RMSF associated with brown dog ticks has since been recognized as an important public health problem in other northern Mexican states, including Sonora and Coahuila.
• In 2011, BIDS partners responded to an outbreak of Campylobacter -Guillain-Barré syndrome in Arizona.