Skip to main content

Elliot Alex

Description

Syndromic surveillance systems are used by Public Health England (PHE) to detect changes in health care activity that are indicative of potential threats to public health. By providing early warning and situational awareness, these systems play a key role in supporting infectious disease surveillance programmes, decision making and supporting public health interventions. In order to improve the identification of unusual activity, we created new baselines to model seasonally expected activity in the absence of outbreaks or other incidents. Although historical data could be used to model seasonality, changes due to public health interventions or working practices affected comparability. Specific examples of these changes included a major change in the way telehealth services were provided in England and the rotavirus vaccination programme introduced in July 2013 that changed the seasonality of gastrointestinal consultations. Therefore, we needed to incorporate these temporal changes in our baselines.

Objective

To improve the ability of syndromic surveillance systems to detect unusual events.

Submitted by Magou on
Description

The impact of poor air quality (AQ) on human health is a global issue, with periods of poor AQ known to occur in multiple locations, across different countries at, or around the same time. The Public Health England (PHE) Emergency Department Syndromic Surveillance System (EDSSS) is a public health legacy of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, monitoring anonymised daily attendance data in near real-time from a sentinel network of up to 38 EDs across England and Northern Ireland during 2014. The Organisation de la Surveillance COordonnée des URgences (OSCOUR®) is a similar ED system coordinated by Santé publique France and has been running in France since 2004, established following a major heatwave in 2003 to improve real-time public health surveillance capabilities. This truly national network included around 540 EDs in 2014.

Objective

To assess the impact on human health observed in association with periods of poor air quality which extended across international borders, affecting both London (UK) and Paris (France). In particular to quantify increased levels of emergency department (ED) attendances for asthma and wheeze/ difficulty breathing, and how different age groups were affected. Here, using ED syndromic surveillance from England and France, we aimed to identify and describe the acute impact of periods of particularly poor air quality during 2014 on human health in both London and Paris.

Submitted by Magou on
Description

Syndromic surveillance is an alternative type of public health surveillance which utilizes pre-diagnostic data sources to detect outbreaks earlier than conventional (laboratory) surveillance and monitor the progression of illnesses in populations. These systems are often noted for their ability to detect a wider range of cases in under- reported illnesses, utilize existing data sources, and alert public health authorities of emerging crises. In addition, they are highly versatile and can be applied to a wide range of illnesses (communicable and non-communicable) and environmental conditions. As a result, their implementation in public health practice is expanding rapidly. This scoping review aimed to identify all existing literature detailing the necessary components in the defining, creating, implementing, and evaluating stages of human infectious disease syndromic surveillance systems. 

Submitted by Magou on
Description

Public Health England (PHE) uses syndromic surveillance systems to monitor for seasonal increases in respiratory illness. Respiratory illnesses create a considerable burden on health care services and therefore identifying the timing and intensity of peaks of activity is important for public health decision-making. Furthermore, identifying the incidence of specific respiratory pathogens circulating in the community is essential for targeting public health interventions e.g. vaccination. Syndromic surveillance can provide early warning of increases, but cannot explicitly identify the pathogens responsible for such increases.

PHE uses a range of general and specific respiratory syndromic indicators in their syndromic surveillance systems, e.g. “all respiratory disease”, “influenza-like illness”, “bronchitis” and “cough”. Previous research has shown that “influenza-like illness” is associated with influenza circulating in the community1 whilst “cough” and “bronchitis” syndromic indicators in children under 5 are associated with respiratory syncytial virus (RSV)2, 3. However, the relative burden of other pathogens, e.g. rhinovirus and parainfluenza is less well understood. We have sought to further understand the relationship between specific pathogens and syndromic indicators and to improve estimates of disease burden. Therefore, we modelled the association between pathogen incidence, using laboratory reports and health care presentations, using syndromic data. 

Objective

To improve understanding of the relative burden of different causative respiratory pathogens on respiratory syndromic indicators monitored using syndromic surveillance systems in England. 

Submitted by Magou on
Description

From 1 September 2015, babies in the United Kingdom (UK) born on/after 1 July 2015 became eligible to receive the MenB vaccine, given at 2 and 4 months of age, with a booster at 12 months. Early trials found a high prevalence of fever (over 38°C) in babies given the vaccine with other routine vaccines at 2 and 4 months. We used syndromic surveillance data to assess whether there had been increased family doctor (general practitioner (GP)) consultations for fever in young infants following the introduction of the vaccine. 

Objective

To use syndromic surveillance data to assess whether there has been an increase in GP fever consultations since the inclusion of the meningococcal B (MenB) vaccine in the UK vaccination schedule. 

Submitted by Magou on

In this webinar, the syndromic surveillance service delivered by Public Health England will be discussed. The presentation will describe the national syndromic surveillance systems used in England (general practitioners, emergency departments, telehealth call services), the routine statistical and analytical methods used to process the data, the 'service' delivered by the team and future data sources under consideration.