What to know
OutbreakNet Enhanced (OBNE) is a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) program that supports state and local health departments. The goal of the program is to improve the capacity to detect, investigate, control, and respond to enteric disease outbreaks. OBNE started in August 2015 with 11 sites. The program expanded and now comprises of 29 participating sites.
Highlights
Program Highlights
In 2023, OutbreakNet Enhanced sites continued to rebuild capacity after being substantially impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic since 2020. Many OBNE projects focused on strengthening capacity, fulfilling training needs of new staff, and reinforcing the fundamentals of outbreak response.
OBNE sites continued to face challenges enduring from the pandemic as more people were hesitant to engage with public health. Public health interviewers experienced an increase in interview reluctance, refusal, and it took longer to reach people. This reinforced the need for interview trainings, and utilizing methods like texting, online surveys, and leveraging student teams for enhanced capacity. Sites relied on new and existing strategies to maintain interview timeliness and completeness, and strive to rebuild trust with the public.
In 2023, OBNE sites partnered with Food Safety CoEs on projects and trainings to improve outbreak surveillance and investigation capacity. Sites collaborated with one another on monthly conference calls by discussing their projects, data modernization efforts, and successes and challenges. A success story, "Feeling Awful from Falafel" was published to the OBNE website highlighting exemplary work by the Michigan OBNE site. OBNE sites were also able to showcase their annual work and provide updates at national meetings and conferences. This included the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists (CSTE) Conference and the Integrated Foodborne Outbreak Response and Management (InFORM) meetings.
Program performance
OBNE performance metrics have been collected since 2016 to document the burden, timeliness, and completeness of enteric disease outbreak activities. Sites report metrics annually on both laboratory and epidemiologic aspects of investigations. Metrics are reported for Salmonella, Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC), and Listeria (SSL), and optional metrics for Shigella and Campylobacter. The metrics are analyzed and revised as needed to best meet program needs.
Select 2023 metrics for Salmonella, STEC, and Listeria (SSL)
- Over 53,000 cases reported
- Over 1,200 clusters detected
- Attempted interviews with an average of 96% of cases
From 2016 to 2019, OBNE sites increased the percentage of primary SSL isolates with WGS testing and have maintained a high level of performance with 90-97% of isolates undergoing WGS testing in 2023.
During 2016-2023, OBNE sites interviewed cases in nearly all outbreak and cluster investigations. Additionally, sites steadily increased the percent of all SSL cases that were interviewed and had a case-patient exposure obtained from 44% in 2016 to 77% in 2023.
