Florida health center sustains to be watchful in fight against Zika Virus

It is been almost 9 months since Florida became the 1st USA state to confirm regional mosquito transmission of the Zika virus. In the public health battle that ensued, Miami-Dade County became ground zero in the fight against the mosquito-borne sickness. Florida health center sustains to be watchful in fight against Zika Virus.

In the time period of late 2016, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention eradicated the “red area” designation for the county, meaning it is no longer a geographic place where local, state and CDC authorities have evaluates that the intensity of Zika transmission reflects a significant risk to pregnant ladies. Zika infection during pregnancy has the possibility to cause critical fetal birth defects. Florida health center sustains to be watchful in fight against Zika Virus.

Although, in accordance to Diego Shmuels, MD, director of quality and clinical practice management at Borinquen Health Care Center of Miami-Dade County, it would be an error to become complacent about the Zika risk now that the county has been downgraded to a cautionary “yellow area” and consider that the worst is behind South Florida.

“We’ve a huge influx of sufferers that travel to and from the Caribbean and Latin America, and clearly with the warm weather there, they are always exposed to the virus,” claims Shmuels, who points out that Borinquen Health Care Center continually screens for Zika regardless of when mosquito season starts and ends.

A federally qualified health center with ten clinical sites, Borinquen has been using electronic health record vendor athenahealth’s network to assist combat Zika by recognizing sufferers who might be at threat for infection by taking the CDC instructions and running EHR queries.

In addition to mosquito bite transmission, the virus can be sexually transmitted to partners. As an outcome, where sufferers live, their travel history and the travel background of their sexual partners can impact their chances of getting Zika.

“I consider that most of our cases are typically imported,” analyzes Shmuels. “Presently, there are no regional cases.”

He asserts that it is significant for clinicians to inquire sufferers if they have themselves travelled to areas with active local Zika transmission or if they have had sex with partners who’ve travelled to those areas, and to document those facts in the electronic health record.

“When Miami’s Wynwood neighborhood became the hot zone for Zika revious year, athenahealth permitted us to execute a call campaign to all our sufferers that were at risk living in particular ZIP codes,” he adds, which was deployed on an athenahealth network query that looked for ladies of reproductive age that could be sexually active or are pregnant, as well as males of the same age group that could be sexually active with those women.

“If we’ve another outbreak of regional cases in Zika-infected areas, we would do the similar again—activate athenahealth to expedite the procedure,” Shmuels summarizes. “We will have to wait and see what happens once the hot weather returns.”

Nevertheless, he contends that the EHR is a “platform that supports decision making—but, at the end of the day, the clinician is the one that evaluates how to properly utilize diagnostic testing.” Florida health center sustains to be watchful in fight against Zika Virus.