scholarly journals Trigonometric Regression for Analysis of Public Health Surveillance Data

2014 ◽  
Vol 2014 ◽  
pp. 1-13 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steven E. Rigdon ◽  
George Turabelidze ◽  
Ehsan Jahanpour
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
False Positive ◽  
Disease Surveillance ◽  
Communicable Disease ◽  
False Positive Rate ◽  
Disease Outbreaks ◽  
Probability Of Detection ◽  
Surveillance Data ◽  
False Alarms ◽  
Statistical Process

Statistical challenges in monitoring modern biosurveillance data are well described in the literature. Even though assumptions of normality, independence, and stationarity are typically violated in the biosurveillance data, statistical process control (SPC) charts adopted from industry have been widely used in public health for communicable disease monitoring. But, blind usage of SPC charts in public health that ignores the characteristics of disease surveillance data may result in poor detection of disease outbreaks and/or excessive false-positive alarms. Thus, improved biosurveillance systems are clearly needed, and participation of statisticians knowledgeable in SPC alongside epidemiologists in the design and evaluation of such systems can be more productive. We describe and study a method for monitoring reportable disease counts using a Poisson distribution whose mean is allowed to vary depending on the week of the year. The seasonality is modeled by a trigonometric function whose parameters can be estimated by some baseline set of data. We study the ability of such a model to detect an outbreak. Specifically, we estimate the probability of detection (POD), the average number of weeks to signal given that a signal has occurred (conditional expected delay, or CED), and the false-positive rate (FPR, the average number of false-alarms per year).

scholarly journals Disease Surveillance System of Bangladesh: Combating Public Health Emergencies

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohammed Husain ◽  
Mahmudur Rahman ◽  
Asm Alamgir ◽  
M. Salim Uzzaman ◽  
Meerjady Sabrina Flora
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Surveillance System ◽  
Disease Surveillance ◽  
Communicable Disease ◽  
Control Unit ◽  
Communicable Diseases ◽  
Health Facilities ◽  
Surveillance Data ◽  
Public Health Emergencies ◽  
Disease Surveillance System

Objectivea) To observe trends and patterns of diseases of public health importance and responseb) To predict, prevent, detect, control and minimize the harm caused by public health emergenciesc) To develop evidence for managing any future outbreaks, epidemic and pandemicIntroductionDisease surveillance is an integral part of public health system. It is an epidemiological method for monitoring disease patterns and trends. International Health Regulation (IHR) 2005 obligates WHO member countries to develop an effective disease surveillance system. Bangladesh is a signatory to IHR 2005. Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research (IEDCR <www.iedcr.gov.bd>) is the mandated institute for surveillance and outbreak response on behalf of Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh. The IEDCR has a good surveillance system including event-based surveillance system, which proved effective to manage public health emergencies. Routine disease profile is collected by Management Information System (MIS) of Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS). Expanded Program of Immunization (EPI) of DGHS collect surveillance data on EPI-related diseases. Disease Control unit, DGHS is responsible for implementing operational plan of disease surveillance system of IEDCR. The surveillance system maintain strategic collaboration with icddrr,b.MethodsThe IEDCR is conducting disease surveillance in several methods and following several systems. Surveillance data of priority communicable disease are collected by web based integrated disease surveillance. It is based on weekly data received from upazilla (sub-district) health complex on communicable disease marked as priority. They are: acute watery diarrhea, bloody dysentery, malaria, kala-azar, tuberculosis, leprosy, encephalitis, any unknown disease. Government health facilities at upazilla (sub-district) send the data using DHIS2. During outbreak, daily, even hourly reporting is sought from the concerned unit.Moreover, IEDCR conducts disease specific specialized surveillance systems. Data from community as well as from health facilities are collected for Influenza, nipah, dengue, HIV, cholera, cutaneous anthrax, non-communicable diseases, food borne illness. Data from health facilities are collected for antimicrobial resistance, rotavirus and intussusception, reproductive health, child health and mortality, post MDA-surveillance for lymphatic filariasis transmission, molecular xenomonitoring for detection of residual Wucheria bancrofti, dengue (virological), emerging zoonotic disease threats in high-risk interfaces, leptospirosis, acute meningo-encephalitis syndrome (AMES) focused on Japanese encephalitis and nipah, unintentional acute pesticide poisoning among young children. Data for event based surveillance are collected from usual surveillance system as well as from dedicated hotlines (24/7) of IEDCR, media monitoring, and any informal reporting.Case detection is done by syndromic surveillance, laboratory diagnosed surveillance, media surveillance, hotline, cell phone-based surveillance. Dissemination of surveillance is done by website of IEDCR, periodic bulletins, seminar, conference etc. Line listing are done by rapid response teams working in the surveillance sites. Demographic information and short address are listed in the list along with clinical and epidemiological information. Initial cases are confirmed by laboratory test, if required from collaborative laboratory at US CDC (Atlanta). When the epidemiological trend is clear, then subsequent cases are detected by symptoms and rapid tests locally available.ResultsIn 2017, 26 incidents of disease outbreak were investigated by National Rapid Response Team (NRRT) of IEDCR. In the same year, 12 cases of outbreak of unknown disease was investigated by NRRT of IEDCR at different health facilities. Joint surveillance with animal health is being planned for detection and managing zoonotic disease outbreaks, following One Health principles. Department of Livestock, Ministry of Environment and icddrb are partners of the joint surveillance based on One Health principles.Disease Control unit of DGHS, district and upazilla health managers utilizes the disease surveillance data for public health management. They analyze also the surveillance data at their respective level to serve their purpose.ConclusionsA robust surveillance is necessary for assessing the public health situation and prompt notification of public health emergency. The system was introduced at IEDCR mainly for malaria and diarrhea control during establishment of this institute. Eventually the system was developed for communicable disease, and recently for non-communicable diseases. It is effectively used for managing public health emergencies. Notification and detection of public health emergency is mostly possible due to media surveillance.Data for syndromic surveillance for priority communicable diseases is often not sent timely and data quality is often compromised. Tertiary hospitals are yet to participate in the web based integrated disease surveillance system for priority communicable diseases. But they are part of specialized disease surveillances. Data from specialized surveillance with laboratory support is of high quality.Evaluation of the system by conducting research is recommended to improve the system. Specificity and sensitivity of case detection system should also be tested periodically.ReferencesCash, Richard A, Halder, Shantana R, Husain, Mushtuq, Islam, Md Sirajul, Mallick, Fuad H, May, Maria A, Rahman, Mahmudur, Rahman, M Aminur. Reducing the health effect of natural hazards in Bangladesh. Lancet, The, 2013, Volume 382, Issue 9910IEDCR. At the frontline of public health. updated 2013. www.iedcr.gov.bdAo TT, Rahman M et al. Low-Cost National Media-Based Surveillance System for Public Health Events, Bangladesh. Emerging Infectious Diseases. Vol 22, No 4. 2016.<www.iedcr.gov.bd> accessed on 1 Oct 2018. 

Electronic notifiable disease reporting system from primary care health centres in Qatar: a comparison of paper-based versus electronic reporting

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 32-38
Author(s):  
Mohamed Ahmed Syed ◽  
Hanan Al Mujalli ◽  
Catherine Kiely ◽  
Hamda Abdulla A/Qotba ◽  
Khalid Elawad ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Disease Surveillance ◽  
Public Health Surveillance ◽  
Reporting System ◽  
Communicable Disease ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Health Surveillance ◽  
Disease Notification ◽  
Electronic Reporting ◽  
Health Centres

Communicable disease outbreaks can spread rapidly, causing enormous losses to individual health, national economies and social well-being. Therefore, communicable disease surveillance is essential for protecting public health. In Qatar, electronic reporting from primary health centres was proposed as a means of improving disease notification, replacing a paper-based method of reporting (via internal mail, facsimile, email or telephone), which has disadvantages and requires active cooperation and engagement of staff. This study is a predescriptive and postdescriptive analysis, which compared disease notifications received from electronic and paper-based systems during 3-month evaluation periods (quarter 2 in 2016 and quarter 2 in 2018 for paper-based and electronic reporting, respectively) in terms of comprehensiveness, timeliness and completeness. For the 23 notifiable diseases included in this study, approximately twice as many notifications were received through the electronic reporting system as from the paper-based reporting system, demonstrating it is more comprehensive. An overall increase in notifications is likely to have a positive public health impact in Qatar. 100% of electronic notifications were received in a timely manner, compared with 28% for paper-based notifications. Findings of the study show that electronic reporting presents a revolutionary opportunity to advance public health surveillance. It is recommended that electronic reporting be rolled out more widely to improve the completeness, stability and representativeness of the national public health surveillance system in Qatar as well as other countries.

The Geographical Matrix

2009 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. D. Cliff ◽  
M.R. Smallman-Raynor ◽  
P. Haggett ◽  
D.F. Stroup ◽  
S.B. Thacker
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Disease Surveillance ◽  
Communicable Disease ◽  
Communicable Diseases ◽  
League Of Nations ◽  
Morbidity And Mortality ◽  
Significant Public Health ◽  
Degree Of Certainty ◽  
The Times ◽  
Health Organization

A historical–geographical exploration of disease emergence is confronted by a series of fundamental questions: Which diseases have emerged? When? And where? For some high-profile diseases, such as Legionnaires’ disease, Ebola viral disease, and severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), the first recognized outbreaks are well documented in the scientific literature and the space–time coordinates of these early events can be fixed with a high degree of certainty. But, for some other diseases—especially those that, over the decades, have periodically resurfaced as significant public health problems—the times and places of their rise to prominence can be harder to specify. Accordingly, in this chapter we undertake a content analysis of three major epidemiological sources to identify patterns in the recognition and recording of communicable diseases of public health significance in the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. Our analysis begins, in Section 3.2, with an examination of global and world regional patterns of communicable disease surveillance as documented in the annual statistical reports of the League of Nations/World Health Organization, 1923–83. In Section 3.3, we turn to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC’s) landmark publication Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) to identify ‘headline trends’ in the national and international coverage of communicable diseases, 1952–2005. Finally, in Section 3.4, the inventory of epidemic assistance investigations (Epi-Aids) undertaken by CDC’s Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS), 1946– 2005, provides a unique series of insights from the front line of epidemic investigative research. Informed by the evidence presented in these sections, Section 3.5 concludes by specifying the regional–thematic matrix of diseases for analysis in Chapters 4–9. The systematic international recording of information about morbidity and mortality from disease begins with the Health Organization of the League of Nations, established in the aftermath of the Great War. The first meeting of the Health Committee of the Health Section of the League took place in August 1921 to consider ‘the question of organising means of more rapid interchange of epidemiological information’ (Health Section of the League of Nations 1922: 3).

scholarly journals Surveillance of outbreaks of waterborne infectious disease: categorizing levels of evidence

1998 ◽  
Vol 120 (1) ◽  
pp. 37-42 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. E. TILLETT ◽  
J. de LOUVOIS ◽  
P. G. WALL
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Disease Surveillance ◽  
Public Health Surveillance ◽  
Communicable Disease ◽  
Health Surveillance ◽  
Reasonable Doubt ◽  
Quality Information ◽  
Recreational Water ◽  
Specific Detection ◽  
Subsequent Investigation

Public health surveillance requires the monitoring of waterborne disease, but sensitive and specific detection of relevant incidents is difficult.The Communicable Disease Surveillance Centre receives information from various sources about clusters of cases of illness in England and Wales. The reporter may suspect that water consumption or recreational water exposure is the route of infection, or subsequent investigation may raise the hypothesis that water is associated with illness.It is difficult to prove beyond reasonable doubt that such a hypothesis is correct. Water samples from the time of exposure are seldom available, some organisms are difficult to detect and almost everyone has some exposure to water. Therefore, we have developed a method of categorizing the degree of evidence used to implicate water. The categories take into account the epidemiology, microbiology and water quality information. Thus outbreaks are classified as being associated with water either ‘strongly’, ‘probably’ or ‘possibly’.This system allows a broad database for monitoring possible effects of water and is not confined to the few outbreaks which have been intensively investigated or have positive environmental microbiology. Thus, for reported incidents, the sensitivity of classifying it as water associated should be high but this may be at the expense of specificity, especially with the ‘possible’ association.

scholarly journals Notifiable diseases after implementation of COVID-19 public health prevention measures in Central Queensland, Australia

2021 ◽  
Vol 45 ◽  
Author(s):  
Odewumi Adegbija ◽  
Jacina Walker ◽  
Nicholas Smoll ◽  
Arifuzzaman Khan ◽  
Julieanne Graham ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Disease Surveillance ◽  
Communicable Disease ◽  
Communicable Diseases ◽  
Prevention Measures ◽  
Vector Borne Diseases ◽  
Vaccine Preventable Diseases ◽  
Notifiable Diseases ◽  
Health Measures ◽  
Travel Restrictions

The implementation of public health measures to control the current COVID-19 pandemic (such as wider lockdowns, overseas travel restrictions and physical distancing) is likely to have affected the spread of other notifiable diseases. This is a descriptive report of communicable disease surveillance in Central Queensland (CQ) for six months (1 April to 30 September 2020) after the introduction of physical distancing and wider lockdown measures in Queensland. The counts of notifiable communicable diseases in CQ in the six months were observed and compared with the average for the same months during the years 2015 to 2019. During the study’s six months, there were notable decreases in notifications of most vaccine-preventable diseases such as influenza, pertussis and rotavirus. Conversely, notifications increased for disease groups such as blood-borne viruses, sexually transmitted infections and vector-borne diseases. There were no reported notifications for dengue fever and malaria which are mostly overseas acquired. The notifications of some communicable diseases in CQ were variably affected and the changes correlated with the implementation of the COVID-19 public health measures.

scholarly journals Communicable disease surveillance, prevention and control in Slovenia

2004 ◽  
Vol 8 (25) ◽  
Author(s):  
I Klavs ◽  
A Hocevar-Grom ◽  
M Socan ◽  
M Grgic-Vitek ◽  
L Pahor ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Disease Surveillance ◽  
Prevention And Control ◽  
Communicable Disease ◽  
Communicable Diseases ◽  
The Republic ◽  
And Control

National communicable disease surveillance, prevention and control in Slovenia is coordinated by the Communicable Diseases Centre of the Institute of Public Health of the Republic of Slovenia

scholarly journals Health Canada publishes Learning from SARS report and recommends expansion of communicable disease surveillance in Canada

2003 ◽  
Vol 7 (41) ◽  
Author(s):  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Advisory Committee ◽  
Disease Surveillance ◽  
Communicable Disease ◽  
Health Canada

Health Canada has published the report of the National Advisory Committee on SARS and Public Health, Learning from SARS: Renewal of public health in Canada

scholarly journals Communicable disease surveillance, prevention and control in Latvia

2004 ◽  
Vol 8 (25) ◽  
Author(s):  
A Bormane ◽  
I Lucenko ◽  
J Perevoščikovs
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Risk Factors ◽  
Health Service ◽  
Health Risk ◽  
Disease Surveillance ◽  
Prevention And Control ◽  
Public Health Service ◽  
Communicable Disease ◽  
Communicable Diseases ◽  
And Control

The Latvian public health service dates back to 1947. The Sanitary Epidemiological Service, created in Soviet times, provided two main functions – assessment of health risk factors, including surveillance of communicable diseases, and inspection.

scholarly journals Laboratory-Guided Detection of Disease Outbreaks: Three Generations of Surveillance Systems

2009 ◽  
Vol 133 (6) ◽  
pp. 916-925 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vitali Sintchenko ◽  
Blanca Gallego
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Infectious Disease ◽  
Decision Support ◽  
Disease Surveillance ◽  
Disease Outbreaks ◽  
Health Indicators ◽  
Surveillance Systems ◽  
Public Health Monitoring ◽  
Search Terms ◽  
Publication Language

Abstract Context.—Traditional biothreat surveillance systems are vulnerable to incomplete and delayed reporting of public health threats. Objective.—To review current and emerging approaches to detection and monitoring of biothreats enabled by laboratory methods of diagnosis and to identify trends in the biosurveillance research. Data Sources.—PubMed (1995 to December 2007) was searched with the combined search terms “surveillance” and “infectious diseases.” Additional articles were identified by hand searching the bibliographies of selected papers. Additional search terms were “public health,” “disease monitoring,” “cluster,” “outbreak,” “laboratory notification,” “molecular,” “detection,” “evaluation,” “genomics,” “communicable diseases,” “geographic information systems,” “bioterrorism,” “genotyping,” and “informatics.” Publication language was restricted to English. The bibliographies of key references were later hand searched to identify articles missing in the database search. Three approaches to infectious disease surveillance that involve clinical laboratories are contrasted: (1) laboratory-initiated infectious disease notifications, (2) syndromic surveillance based on health indicators, and (3) genotyping based surveillance of biothreats. Advances in molecular diagnostics enable rapid genotyping of biothreats and investigations of genes that were not previously identifiable by traditional methods. There is a need for coordination between syndromic and laboratory-based surveillance. Insufficient and delayed decision support and inadequate integration of surveillance signals into action plans remain the 2 main barriers to efficient public health monitoring and response. Decision support for public health users of biosurveillance alerts is often lacking. Conclusions.—The merger of the 3 scientific fields of surveillance, genomics, and informatics offers an opportunity for the development of effective and rapid biosurveillance methods and tools.

Reporting Disease Outbreaks in a World with No Digital Borders

2018 ◽  
pp. 511-529
Author(s):  
Sara E. Davies
Keyword(s):  
Disease Surveillance ◽  
Communicable Disease ◽  
International Health ◽  
Disease Outbreaks ◽  
World Health ◽  
Rapid Spread ◽  
Political Challenge ◽  
Health Organization ◽  
Health Regulations ◽  
Formal Recognition

In a world of fast-paced, globalised travel and trade, early detection of communicable disease outbreaks has become ever more important to prevent the rapid spread of disease. To facilitate surveillance and reporting, detection and communication must be as fast paced as the movement of the outbreak. This sense of urgency has prompted a pivot to technology as the best solution to keep up with the spread of disease. Reliance on a variety of state and nonstate informants with access to surveillance platforms to report potential disease outbreak events to the World Health Organization (WHO) has led to its formal recognition in the revised International Health Regulations (IHRs). However, as this chapter discusses, the inclusion of nonstate reports in disease surveillance and reporting remains a practical and political challenge.

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