TY - JOUR AU - Lucero-Obusan, Cynthia A. AU - Winters, Mark AU - Schirmer, Patricia AU - Oda, Gina AU - Martinello, Richard A. AU - Davey, Victoria J. AU - Holodniy, Mark PY - 2014/03/09 Y2 - 2024/03/29 TI - Influenza Surveillance in the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA): 2012-2013 Influenza Season JF - Online Journal of Public Health Informatics JA - OJPHI VL - 6 IS - 1 SE - Oral Presentations DO - 10.5210/ojphi.v6i1.5121 UR - https://ojphi.org/ojs/index.php/ojphi/article/view/5121 SP - AB - Since 2009, VA Office of Public Health has monitored influenza and influenza-like-illness (ILI) activity using the VA's Healthcare Associated Infection and Influenza Surveillance System (HAIISS). Analysis of data from the 2012-2013 Influenza Season showed increases in outpatient visits, hospitalizations, telephone triage calls, total testing and positive influenza tests, indicating that the 2012-2013 season required more healthcare resource utilization.  Additionally, more Veterans ≥ 65 years of age sought care compared to the last 2 seasons. Strain characterization demonstrated HA epitope differences compared to vaccine strains. Vaccine procedure data showed that influenza immunization among VA patients could be improved upon. ER -