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BookmarkScienceDaily (Mar. 26, 2008) — A new approach to monitoring infectious disease outbreaks using statistical algorithms as well as "pre-diagnostic" data--such as medication sales, patients' symptoms, and absenteeism from work--holds promise for improving public health security in developing countries, argue researchers in PLoS Medicine.
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The approach, known as "syndromic surveillance," is already being used in some of the world's rich countries. The researchers, led by Jean-Paul Chretien (Department of Defense Global Emerging Infections Surveillance and Response System, Silver Spring, Maryland, USA), argue in their PLoS Medicine article that "there is cause for optimism that syndromic surveillance approaches can feasibly be adapted to developing settings."
Dr Chretien and colleagues lay out four reasons for optimism. First, they say, these approaches fit naturally with and could enhance existing strategies for outbreak detection and "situational awareness" (such as monitoring outbreak distribution and spread, and characterizing affected populations) in tropical areas. Second, many Ministries of Health already require reporting of data that have proven useful for syndromic surveillance in high-income countries, such as International Classification of Diseases codes. Third, expanding access to communication networks and technology will facilitate rapid electronic data entry, reporting, and analysis in resource-limited areas. Finally, syndromic surveillance initiatives could dovetail with other efforts to improve health information, such as the Health Metrics Network, launched in 2005, which aims to increase the availability and use of timely and accurate health information by cat alyzing the joint funding and development of core country health information systems.
"By helping to rapidly detect and characterize unusual morbidity trends," say Dr Chretien and colleagues, "syndromic surveillance holds promise as an early line of defense against new and emerging infections in developing settings."
Journal reference: Chretien J-P, Burkom HS, Sedyaningsih ER, Larasati RP, Lescano AG, et al. (2008) Syndromic surveillance: Adapting innovations to developing settings. PLoS Med 5(3): e72.
