The Sentinel Provider Network (SPN) in Louisiana is part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Influenza Surveillance System. We are currently recruiting physicians to participate in Outpatient Illness Surveillance to conduct enhanced surveillance for Swine Influenza.

Outpatient Illness Surveillance consists of information on patient visits to health care providers for influenza-like illness that is collected through the U.S. Outpatient Influenza-like Illness Surveillance Network (ILINet). The ILINet consists of about 2,400 healthcare providers in 50 states reporting approximately 16 million patient visits each year. Each week, approximately 1,300 outpatient care sites around the country report data to the CDC on the total number of patients seen and the number of those patients with influenza-like illness (ILI) by age group. For this system, ILI is defined as fever (temperature of 100°F [37.8°C] or greater), and a cough and/or a sore throat in the absence of a KNOWN cause other than influenza. The percentage of patient visits to healthcare providers for ILI reported each week is weighted on the basis of state population. This percentage is compared each week with the national baseline of 2.4%. The baseline is the mean percentage of patient visits for ILI during non-influenza weeks for the previous three seasons plus two standard deviations. Due to wide variability in regional level data, it is not appropriate to apply the national baseline to regional data, therefore, region-specific baselines are calculated. Louisiana is part of the West South Central region with a baseline of 4.8 percent.