Public Health Surveillance for Mass Gatherings

Mass gatherings represent specific challenges for public health officials because of the health risks associated with crowd size and duration of stay. In addition, population movement requires public health departments to interact across jurisdictional boundaries to identify risks and disease-management solutions. However, federal privacy laws restrict the sharing of patient data among public health departments in multiple jurisdictions. This article examines previous disease surveillance practices by public health officials in planning for mass events and describes a simple approach for sharing health-risk information that was employed in 2007 during Super Bowl XLI by the health departments of Indiana, Marion County, Cook County, and Miami-Dade County.