Use of Unstructured Event-Based Reports for Global Infectious Disease Surveillance
- 1 May 2009
- journal article
- review article
- Published by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Emerging Infectious Diseases
- Vol. 15 (5), 689-695
- https://doi.org/10.3201/eid1505.081114
Abstract
Free or low-cost sources of unstructured information, such as Internet news and online discussion sites, provide detailed local and near real-time data on disease outbreaks, even in countries that lack traditional public health surveillance. To improve public health surveillance and, ultimately, interventions, we examined 3 primary systems that process event-based outbreak information: Global Public Health Intelligence Network, HealthMap, and EpiSPIDER. Despite similarities among them, these systems are highly complementary because they monitor different data types, rely on varying levels of automation and human analysis, and distribute distinct information. Future development should focus on linking these systems more closely to public health practitioners in the field and establishing collaborative networks for alert verification and dissemination. Such development would further establish event-based monitoring as an invaluable public health resource that provides critical context and an alternative to traditional indicator-based outbreak reporting.Keywords
This publication has 25 references indexed in Scilit:
- Syndromic Surveillance: Adapting Innovations to Developing SettingsPLoS Medicine, 2008
- The New International Health Regulations: Considerations for Global Public Health SurveillanceDisaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness, 2007
- Global Infectious Disease Surveillance And Health IntelligenceHealth Affairs, 2007
- Disease surveillance needs a revolutionNature, 2006
- The challenge of emerging and re-emerging infectious diseasesNature, 2004
- Implementing Syndromic Surveillance: A Practical Guide Informed by the Early ExperienceJournal of the American Medical Informatics Association, 2003
- Emerging and re-emerging infectious diseasesMedical Microbiology and Immunology, 2002
- Hot spots in a wired world: WHO surveillance of emerging and re-emerging infectious diseasesThe Lancet Infectious Diseases, 2001
- Rumors of Disease in the Global Village: Outbreak VerificationEmerging Infectious Diseases, 2000
- Travel and the Emergence of Infectious DiseasesEmerging Infectious Diseases, 1995