Meeting the International Health Regulations (2005) surveillance core capacity requirements at the subnational level in Europe: the added value of syndromic surveillance

Ziemann, Alexandra; Rosenkötter, Nicole; Riesgo, Luis Garcia-Castrillo; Fischer, Matthias; Krämer, Alexander; Lippert, Freddy K; Vergeiner, Gernot; Brand, Helmut; Krafft, Thomas

doi:10.1186/s12889-015-1421-2

Table 2 Timeliness of syndromic surveillance systems assessing the A/H1N1 pandemic in Europe*

From: Meeting the International Health Regulations (2005) surveillance core capacity requirements at the subnational level in Europe: the added value of syndromic surveillance

Country	System name/Short description	Data source	Reference data source	Timeliness [weeks]					Reference
Country	System name/Short description	Data source	Reference data source	Aberration detection algorithm signal	Peak comparison (remark)	Cross-correlation	Increase comparison	Best result
Austria	SIDARTHa Tirol	Emergency medical dispatch centre	Sick leaves due to acute respiratory infections of a major Tyrolean health insurance	0				0	[21]
Belgium	SIDARTHa Leuven	Emergency Department	Sentinel general practitioners	+1.43	−1			−1	[21]
	SIDARTHa Belgium	Ambulance service	Sentinel general practitioners	0	−1	−1		−1	[21]
	Belgian absenteeism surveillance	Absenteeism	Sentinel general practitioners		−2 (work absenteeism)		−2.5 (work absenteeism)	−2.5	[24]
	Belgian absenteeism surveillance	Absenteeism	Sentinel general practitioners		−1.75 (school absenteeism)		−2.5 (work absenteeism)	−2.5	[24]
Denmark	DMOS unscheduled general practitioner influenza surveillance	Primary care	Laboratory confirmations, Sentinel general practitioners		−1 (sentinel general practitioners) 0 (laboratory confirmation)			−1	[23]
Spain	SIDARTHa Cantabria^†	Emergency department	Sentinel general practitioners	+1.36	+1	+1		+1	[21]
Sweden	GETWELL^†	Web queries	Sentinel general practitioners, Google Flu Trends		−0.5 (sentinel general practitioners) 0 (Google Flu Trends)^‡			−0.5	[30]
United Kingdom	NHS Direct surveillance England/Wales	Telephone helpline	Q-Surveillance syndromic surveillance system				−1^‡	n.a.	[32]
	Q-Surveillance (scheduled care surveillance England)	Primary care	NHS Direct syndromic surveillance system				+1^‡	n.a.	[32]
	School surveillance West Midlands	Absenteeism	Laboratory confirmations, NHS Direct syndromic surveillance system		0 (sentinel general practitioners, laboratory confirmations, telephone helpline calls for cold/flu^‡) +1 (telephone helpline calls for fever)^‡			0	[35]
Europe	Google Flu Trends surveillance Europe	Web queries	Sentinel general practitioners		0 (7 countries)			−2	[38]
					- 1 (3 countries)
					- 2 (1 country)
					+1 (1 country)
					−11 (1 country)^§
Average all syndromic surveillance systems								−0.56

*Europe = EU Member States, European Free Trade Zone countries, Acceding and Candidate countries.
^†Timeliness values for this syndromic surveillance system were calculated as average for results from two waves during the 2009 pandemic.
^‡This value was based on reference data that cannot be defined as traditional influenza surveillance source (= other syndromic surveillance source) and was excluded from further analysis.
^§This value was treated as outlier and was excluded from further analysis.

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ISSN: 1471-2458

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