Table 3 Definitions of the outputs of the syndromic surveillance system
Outputs | Three types of surveillance units | ||
|---|---|---|---|
Health facilities | Primary schools | Pharmacies | |
A reported event | Any report concerning an outpatient with at least one of the ten targeted symptoms (fever, cough, sore throat, nausea/vomiting, diarrhea, rash, muco-cutaneous hemorrhage, headache, convulsion and disturbance of consciousness) | Each absence of students at the primary schools | A reported sale of one unit pack of medicine as defined by the accompanying patent instructions |
Syndromes | 4 syndromes: acute respiratory infection (patients with fever and either cough or sore throat), influenza-like illness (patients with temperature ≥38 °C and with either cough or sore throat), fever gastro syndrome (patients with fever and with either diarrhea or nausea/vomiting), and fever and rash (patients with both fever and rash) | Clusters of absence by classes | 5 syndromes: Compound cold medicines, antitussive, antibiotics, febrifuge and antidiarrheal agents |
A raw signal | A data cluster detected by the automated statistical analysis of the syndromic surveillance system or by manual detection of the data management personnel which is a suspect of an infectious disease outbreak. | ||
A confirmed signal (an outbreak) | A disease cluster with explicit agents and evidence of transmission which might represent or develop to a true outbreak in the absence of early intervention | ||