Guidelines for Arbovirus Surveillance Programs in the United States

Approaches to arbovirus surveillance in the United States vary from state to state, and surveillance data are rarely comparable. Standardized data collected in a standardized fashion can document regional patterns in the spatial and temporal dynamics of disease activity. That information can be used to predict and help prevent major epidemics.

The purpose is to provide guidelines for standardization of surveillance for mosquito-borne viral encephalitis. We emphasize predictive, proactive, and efficient methods whenever possible. Following a general discussion of the philosophy of surveillance and the range of available surveillance tools is presented, in Chapter 2, recommended surveillance methods for each of the common encephalitides found in the U.S. In Chapters 3-6, provides brief reviews of the biology and behavior of the vectors and vertebrate hosts of the major encephalitides. In the reviews, only those biological and behavioral characteristics that are important to the surveillance effort was discussed.