Rapid deployment of an electronic disease surveillance system in the state of Utah for the 2002 Olympic Winter Games

The key to minimizing the effects of an intentionally caused disease outbreak is early detection of the attack and rapid identification of the affected individuals. The Bush administration's leadership in advocating for biosurveillance systems capable of monitoring for bioterrorism attacks suggests that we should move quickly to establish a nationwide early warning biosurveillance system as a defense against this threat. The spirit of collaboration and unity inspired by the events of 9-11 and the 2002 Olympic Winter Games in Salt Lake City provided the opportunity to demonstrate how a prototypic biosurveillance system could be rapidly deployed. In seven weeks we were able to implement an automated, real-time disease outbreak detection system in the State of Utah and monitored 80,684 acute care visits occurring during a 28-day period spanning the Olympics. No trends of immediate public health concern were identified.