The Tennessee Emerging Infections Program has been awarded a new five-year grant from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to continue infectious disease surveillance research that has been conducted since 1999, and has expanded to include COVID, Mpox and HPV surveillance into oropharyngeal cancers.
The EIP program, which includes more than 20 faculty and staff at Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC), supports a long-standing partnership between VUMC and the Tennessee Department of Health and surveillance programs in departments of health in 10 U.S. states.
In addition to adding Mpox and new HPV surveillance, the EIP program will also be participating in new data modernization activities, which have been required by the CDC.
“Not many programs have that track record,” said Tiffanie Markus, PhD, CCRP, research associate professor in the Department of Health Policy and EIP project director.
The EIP program conducts surveillance of many infectious diseases from foodborne pathogens to influenza and other respiratory infections like RSV and COVID-19. The team of researchers collects and analyzes data from Tennessee and the 10 partner states, and then reports those data to the CDC, where they have a direct role in establishing national public health policy.
As an example, critical characteristics of annual influenza epidemics are defined by EIP surveillance. This includes the age distribution of the affected population, the severity of the illness and the dominant influenza strains. Similar data were assembled rapidly on COVID which were central contributions to creating recommendations for COVID vaccine use.
Surveillance data of serious pneumococcal and meningococcal infections have guided revisions of vaccine recommendations against those serious diseases. In addition, HPV surveillance has reinforced the importance of the routine immunization of adolescents.
The EIP program annually hosts a research presentation symposium featuring TDH personnel and other researchers from partner states who present data and findings on a variety of national surveillance activities.
William Schaffner, MD, professor of Infectious Disease and Health Policy, served as the program’s principal investigator until 2023. Keipp Talbot, MD, MPH, has since taken the lead.
In 2023 the program was recognized with the CDC’s Toby Merlin award, a national honor given for the program’s rapid response to the COVID-19 pandemic.