Arizona health officials say a technical error has caused the state to be without a federal public health surveillance tool used to track deaths caused by diseases.
The Arizona Republic reports the state has not received death-surveillance reports from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention since October when Arizona switch to a new database for birth and death records.
Maricopa County health officials say the CDC reports included data on deaths from the flu, opioid overdoses, diabetes and cancer.
Officials say that under the state's new Database Application for Vital Events, the state's regular reports to the CDC were rejected because they included unwanted files. The CDC reports back stopped as a result.
The Arizona Department of Health Services officials say they expect to fix the issue by February.
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Information from: The Arizona Republic, http://www.azcentral.com
