The Kent County Health Department (KCHD) in Grand Rapids, Michigan is working with the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) to investigate an outbreak of influenza-like illness among attendees of the National Rural Letter Carriers Association (NRLCA) National Convention that took place August 12 through August 17 at the DeVos Place Convention Center in Grand Rapids, MI. In an effort to gather as much information as possible about this outbreak, KCHD and MDHHS have designed an on-line survey that is being made available to conference attendees via the NRLCA. The survey is available at the link below and we would greatly appreciate you taking the time to provide answers to the survey questions. The survey should take no longer than 15 minutes to complete.
We request that the survey be completed by ALL conference attendees, whether you became ill or not and ask that you please complete the survey by Thursday, September 6.
https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/NRLCA2018
All information you provide will be kept confidential by the staff at the Kent County Health Department. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) Privacy Rule identifies local health departments such as KCHD as a “public health authority.” Under this rule, public health authorities are authorized by law to collect or receive personal health information for the purpose of preventing or controlling disease, injury or disability, such as for purposes of reporting disease, injury, or vital events, or for public health surveillance, investigations, or interventions (https://www.hhs.gov/hipaa/for-professionals/special-topics/public-health/index.html).
If you have any questions regarding the survey or would like to provide additional information for our investigation, please feel free to contact Brian Hartl, KCHD Epidemiology Supervisor, by phone at 616-632-7287 or e-mail at Brian.Hartl@kentcountymi.gov.
Source: NRLCA