Suspecting measles as a diagnosis, instituting immediate airborne isolation, and ensuring rapidly retrievable measles immunity records for HCPs are paramount in preventing health care-associated spread and in minimizing hospital outbreak-response costs.

Additional public and provider education are needed to reduce delays in diagnosis.

The numbers of reported cases of coccidioidomycosis in Arizona and California have risen dramatically over the past decade, with a 97.8% and 91.1% increase in incidence rates from 2001 to 2006 in the two states, respectively. Of those cases with reported race/ethnicity information, Black/African Americans in Arizona and Hispanics and African/Americans in California experienced a disproportionately higher frequency of disease compared to other racial/ethnic groups. Lack of early diagnosis continues to be a problem, particularly in suspect community-acquired pneumonia, underscoring the need for more rapid and sensitive tests. Similarly, the inability of currently available therapeutics to reduce the duration and morbidity of this disease underscores the need for improved therapeutics and a preventive vaccine.

A well-implemented process, led by trusted, knowledgeable, and engaged health care professionals who can provide appropriate support and information, can assist under-screened and never-screened women to complete the hpv self-collection pathway successfully.

Coccidioidomycosis is a common cause of communityacquired pneumonia (CAP) in disease-endemic areas. Because testing rates infl uence interpretation of reportable-disease data and quality of CAP patient care, we determined the proportion of CAP patients who were tested for Coccidioides spp., identifi ed testing predictors, and determined the proportion of tested patients who had positive coccidioidomycosis results. Cohort studies to determine the proportion of ambulatory CAP patients who were tested in 2 healthcare systems in metropolitan Phoenix found testing rates of 2% and 13%. A case-control study identifi ed signifi cant predictors of testing to be age >18 years, rash, chest pain, and symptoms for >14 days. Serologic testing confi rmed coccidioidomycosis in 9 (15%) of 60 tested patients, suggesting that the proportion of CAP caused by coccidioidomycosis was substantial. However, because Coccidioides spp. testing among CAP patients was infrequent, reportable-disease data, which rely on positive diagnostic test results, greatly underestimate the true disease prevalence.