Journal
EPIDEMIOLOGY AND INFECTION
Volume 142, Issue 11, Pages 2433-2446Publisher
CAMBRIDGE UNIV PRESS
DOI: 10.1017/S0950268813003452
Keywords
Gastrointestinal infections; public health; surveillance system
Funding
- European Union, within the framework of the Public Health Programme [2007208]
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We developed a syndromic surveillance (SyS) concept using emergency dispatch, ambulance and emergency-department data from different European countries. Based on an inventory of sub-national emergency data availability in 12 countries, we propose framework definitions for specific syndromes and a SyS system design. We tested the concept by retrospectively applying cumulative sum and spatio-temporal cluster analyses for the detection of local gastrointestinal outbreaks in four countries and comparing the results with notifiable disease reporting. Routine emergency data was available daily and electronically in 11 regions, following a common structure. We identified two gastrointestinal outbreaks in two countries; one was confirmed as a norovirus outbreak. We detected 1/147 notified outbreaks. Emergency-care data-based SyS can supplement local surveillance with near real-time information on gastrointestinal patients, especially in special circumstances, e. g. foreign tourists. It most likely cannot detect the majority of local gastrointestinal outbreaks with few, mild or dispersed cases.
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