Emergency Department Visits for Pedestrians Injured in Motor Vehicle Traffic Crashes - United States, January 2021-December 2023.

Traffic-related pedestrian deaths in the United States reached a 40-year high in 2021. Each year, pedestrians also suffer nonfatal traffic-related injuries requiring medical treatment. Near real-time emergency department visit data from CDC's National Syndromic Surveillance Program during January 2021-December 2023 indicated that among approximately 301 million visits identified, 137,325 involved a pedestrian injury (overall visit proportion = 45.

Asthma-Associated Emergency Department Visits During the Canadian Wildfire Smoke Episodes - United States, April- August 2023.

During April 30-August 4, 2023, smoke originating from wildfires in Canada affected most of the contiguous United States. CDC used National Syndromic Surveillance Program data to assess numbers and percentages of asthma-associated emergency department (ED) visits on days with wildfire smoke, compared with days without wildfire smoke. Wildfire smoke days were defined as days when concentrations of particulate matter (particles generally ≤2.

Increase in Acute Respiratory Illnesses Among Children and Adolescents Associated with Rhinoviruses and Enteroviruses, Including Enterovirus D68 - United States, July-September 2022.

Increases in severe respiratory illness and acute flaccid myelitis (AFM) among children and adolescents resulting from enterovirus D68 (EV-D68) infections occurred biennially in the United States during 2014, 2016, and 2018, primarily in late summer and fall. Although EV-D68 annual trends are not fully understood, EV-D68 levels were lower than expected in 2020, potentially because of implementation of COVID-19 mitigation measures (e.g.

Trends in Acute Hepatitis of Unspecified Etiology and Adenovirus Stool Testing Results in Children - United States, 2017-2022.

In November 2021, CDC was notified of a cluster of previously healthy children with hepatitis of unknown etiology evaluated at a single U.S. hospital (1).

Using the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Syndromic Surveillance Program Data to Monitor Trends in US Emergency Department Visits for Firearm Injuries, 2018 to 2019.

Study Objective: We describe trends in emergency department (ED) visits for initial firearm injury encounters in the United States.

Methods: Using data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Syndromic Surveillance Program, we analyzed monthly and yearly trends in ED visit rates involving a firearm injury (calculated as the number of firearm injury-related ED visits divided by the total number of ED visits for each month and multiplied by 100,000) by sex-specific age group and US region from 2018 to 2019 and conducted Joinpoint regression to detect trend significance.

Results: Among approximately 215 million ED visits captured in the National Syndromic Surveillance Program from January 2018 to December 2019, 132,767 involved a firearm injury (61.

Syndromic surveillance of vaccine-associated adverse events in U.S. emergency departments.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention explored use of emergency department (ED) visit data, during 2018-2020, from the National Syndromic Surveillance Program to monitor vaccine-associated adverse events (VAE) among all age groups. A combination of chief complaint terms and administrative diagnosis codes were used to detect VAE-related ED visits. Postvaccination fever was among the top 10 most frequently noted diagnoses.

Emergency Department Visits for Tick Bites - United States, January 2017-December 2019.

The incidence of tickborne diseases in the United States is increasing; reported cases more than doubled from >22,000 in 2004 to >48,000 in 2016 (1). Ticks are responsible for approximately 95% of all locally acquired vectorborne diseases reported by states and the District of Columbia, with Lyme disease accounting for >80% of those cases (2). After a tick bite, persons might seek care at an emergency department (ED) for tick removal and to receive postexposure prophylaxis, which has been shown to effectively prevent Lyme disease when taken within 72 hours of a high-risk bite (3).

Emergency Department Visits for COVID-19 by Race and Ethnicity - 13 States, October-December 2020.

Hispanic or Latino (Hispanic), non-Hispanic Black or African American (Black), and non-Hispanic American Indian or Alaska Native (AI/AN) persons have experienced disproportionately higher rates of hospitalization and death attributable to COVID-19 than have non-Hispanic White (White) persons (1-4). Emergency care data offer insight into COVID-19 incidence; however, differences in use of emergency department (ED) services for COVID-19 by racial and ethnic groups are not well understood. These data, most of which are recorded within 24 hours of the visit, might be an early indicator of changing patterns in disparities.

Development and Validation of a Syndrome Definition to Identify Suspected Nonfatal Heroin-Involved Overdoses Treated in Emergency Departments.

Context: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) works closely with states and local jurisdictions that are leveraging data from syndromic surveillance systems to identify meaningful changes in overdose trends. CDC developed a suspected nonfatal heroin overdose syndrome definition for use with emergency department (ED) data to help monitor trends at the national, state, and local levels.

Objective: This study assesses the percentage of true-positive unintentional and undetermined intent heroin-involved overdose (UUHOD) captured by this definition.

Trends in U.S. Emergency Department Visits Related to Suspected or Confirmed Child Abuse and Neglect Among Children and Adolescents Aged <18 Years Before and During the COVID-19 Pandemic - United States, January 2019-September 2020.

Heightened stress, school closures, loss of income, and social isolation resulting from the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic have increased the risk for child abuse and neglect (1). Using National Syndromic Surveillance Program (NSSP) data from January 6, 2019-September 6, 2020, CDC tabulated weekly numbers of emergency department (ED) visits related to child abuse and neglect and calculated the proportions of such visits per 100,000 ED visits, as well as the percentage of suspected or confirmed ED visits related to child abuse and neglect ending in hospitalization, overall and stratified by age group (0-4, 5-11, and 12-17 years). The total number of ED visits related to child abuse and neglect began decreasing below the corresponding 2019 period during week 11 (March 15-March 22, 2020) for all age groups examined, coinciding with the declaration of a national emergency on March 13 (2); simultaneously, the proportion of these visits per 100,000 ED visits began increasing above the 2019 baseline for all age groups.

Potential indirect effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on use of emergency departments for acute life-threatening conditions - United States, January-May 2020.

This article describes a significant decline in emergency department visits for acute life-threatening conditions during the COVID-19 pandemic, suggesting that patients may be delaying or avoiding care or unable to access care during the pandemic.

Potential Indirect Effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Use of Emergency Departments for Acute Life-Threatening Conditions - United States, January-May 2020.

On March 13, 2020, the United States declared a national emergency in response to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Subsequently, states enacted stay-at-home orders to slow the spread of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, and reduce the burden on the U.S.

Characterizing RNA Excited States Using NMR Relaxation Dispersion.

Changes in RNA secondary structure play fundamental roles in the cellular functions of a growing number of noncoding RNAs. This chapter describes NMR-based approaches for characterizing microsecond-to-millisecond changes in RNA secondary structure that are directed toward short-lived and low-populated species often referred to as "excited states." Compared to larger scale changes in RNA secondary structure, transitions toward excited states do not require assistance from chaperones, are often orders of magnitude faster, and are localized to a small number of nearby base pairs in and around noncanonical motifs.

Visualizing transient Watson-Crick-like mispairs in DNA and RNA duplexes.

Rare tautomeric and anionic nucleobases are believed to have fundamental biological roles, but their prevalence and functional importance has remained elusive because they exist transiently, in low abundance, and involve subtle movements of protons that are difficult to visualize. Using NMR relaxation dispersion, we show here that wobble dG•dT and rG•rU mispairs in DNA and RNA duplexes exist in dynamic equilibrium with short-lived, low-populated Watson-Crick-like mispairs that are stabilized by rare enolic or anionic bases. These mispairs can evade Watson-Crick fidelity checkpoints and form with probabilities (10(-3) to 10(-5)) that strongly imply a universal role in replication and translation errors.

Evaluating the uncertainty in exchange parameters determined from off-resonance R1ρ relaxation dispersion for systems in fast exchange.

Spin relaxation in the rotating frame (R1ρ) is a powerful NMR technique for characterizing fast microsecond timescale exchange processes directed toward short-lived excited states in biomolecules. At the limit of fast exchange, only k(ex)=k(1)+k(-1) and Φex=p(G)p(E)(Δω)(2) can be determined from R1ρ data limiting the ability to characterize the structure and energetics of the excited state conformation. Here, we use simulations to examine the uncertainty with which exchange parameters can be determined for two state systems in intermediate-to-fast exchange using off-resonance R1ρ relaxation dispersion.

The value of ecologic studies: mercury concentration in ambient air and the risk of autism.

Ecologic studies of the spatial relationship between disease and sources of environmental contamination can help to ascertain the degree of risk to populations from contamination and to inform legislation to ameliorate the risk. Population risks associated with persistent low-level mercury exposure have recently begun to be of concern and current reports implicate environmental mercury as a potential contributor in the etiology of various developmental and neurodegenerative diseases including autism and Alzheimer's disease. In this demonstration of preliminary findings, we demonstrate for Bexar County Texas and Santa Clara County California, the hypothesis that the spatial structure of the occurrence of autism has a positive co-variation with the spatial structure of the distribution of mercury in ambient air.

Narrow assessments misrepresent development and misguide policy: comment on Steinberg, Cauffman, Woolard, Graham, and Banich (2009).

Intellectual and psychosocial functioning develop along complex learning pathways. Steinberg, Cauffman, Woolard, Graham, and Banich (see record 2009-18110-001) measured these two classes of abilities with narrow, biased assessments that captured only a segment of each pathway and created misleading age patterns based on ceiling and floor effects. It is a simple matter to shift the assessments to produce the opposite pattern, with cognitive abilities appearing to develop well into adulthood and psychosocial abilities appearing to stop developing at age 16.

Environmental mercury release, special education rates, and autism disorder: an ecological study of Texas.

The association between environmentally released mercury, special education and autism rates in Texas was investigated using data from the Texas Education Department and the United States Environmental Protection Agency. A Poisson regression analysis adjusted for school district population size, economic and demographic factors was used. There was a significant increase in the rates of special education students and autism rates associated with increases in environmentally released mercury.