Published on in Vol 5, No 1 (2013):

Comparing Syndromic Surveillance and Poison Center Data for Snake Bites in Missouri

Comparing Syndromic Surveillance and Poison Center Data for Snake Bites in Missouri

Comparing Syndromic Surveillance and Poison Center Data for Snake Bites in Missouri

Authors of this article:

Karen H. Pugh1 ;   Amy Kelsey2 ;   Rebecca Tominack3
The full text of this article is available as a PDF download by clicking here.

Snake envenomations can lead to complex disease progression in humans. Health care providers often use the Missouri Poison Center (MoPC) to assist with treatment protocols. Missouri ESSENCE, a syndromic surveillance system, and Toxicallå¨, the data system used by the MoPC, were used to compare the frequencies of snake bite cases in Missouri for the past 5 years. The total number of snake bite visits recorded by ESSENCE was 1763, compared to 324 cases from MoPC data. These results suggest that the MoPC should increase awareness of their resources to hospitals in certain regions in Missouri.