Table 1 Information needs of the emergency response team in New Jersey

Number of people exposed

Control Measures

   • Implementation of screening procedures

   • Determination of amount of drugs/vaccine

   • Deployment of drugs/vaccine/antidotes

Follow-up

   • Number of people exposed

   • People who are receiving chemoprophylaxis

   • Centers providing follow up services and number of patients lost

   • Loss of follow-up

Line listings

During the initial investigation

   • Case finding

   • Identification of people at risk

   • People who did not report to work/school

   • People admitted to hospitals that meet case definition

   • People who did not attend screening programs

   • People not receiving post exposure prophylaxis(PEP)

During PEP

   • Dissemination of information such as screening test, changes in PEP protocols,

   • Changes in facilities available for screening/treatment

   • Changes in recommendations

   • Case finding if the definition of exposed changes based on preliminary data

After the control measures are implemented

   • Follow-up of adverse reactions

   • Follow-up of special populations such as pregnant women and children

   • Suspected cases under investigation

   • Cases ruled out

   • Cases ruled in

Clinical information

During Initial Investigation

   • Location of suspected cases

   • Location of confirmed cases

   • Status of confirmatory test

   • Clinical condition of cases

Follow-up

   • Clinical status

   • Disposition

Geographic Information Systems

Base Data

   • Floor plan map linkable to databases

Case finding

   • County/Zip code of exposed populations

   • Hospital locations

   • Driving directions to hospitals, operation centers, and affected facilities

Surveillance

   • The number and location of emergency rooms

   • Hospitals included in the surveillance system

   • Sentinel sites

Environmental

   • Distribution of the sampling

   • Proportion of positive samples

   • Extension of the contamination

Epidemiology

   • Spatial relationship between cases and exposed population

   • Identification of unexposed populations

   • Identification of exposed population not included during the initial assessment

   • Distribution of cases

   • Distribution of deaths

   • Geographic distribution patterns

Guidelines

Guidelines for treatments

   • Frequently asked questions(FAQ) for the emergency response center

   • FAQ for the press

   • Recommendation for clinicians

   • Guidelines for staff

   • Elements of information necessary

   • Software algorithms implemented in other locations

   • Sensitivity and specificity of screening methods

Documentation

During the initial investigation

   • Drafts for guidelines in different versions

   • Drafts for paper forms to be used in all stages of the investigation

   • Customized reports

Laboratory Results

During the case finding

   • Number of samples in the laboratory

   • Number of positive samples

   • Results of confirmatory tests

   • Laboratories involved

   • Discrepancies between laboratories

Logistics

During the whole operation

   • Team list

   • Cell phones

   • Email addresses

   • Distribution by hotel, team, activities

   • Emergency contact numbers