Since April 2012, an integrated syndromic surveillance system (ISSC) has been established in health facilities, pharmacies and primary schools in two rural counties of Jiangxi Province, China (1). The objective of ISSC is to integrate syndromic surveillance with case report system for infectious disease to improve the early detection of disease outbreak in rural China. Varicella is a common respiratory infectious disease among children. In most cases, it is mild but it might cause severe complications including, pneumonia, meningitis, even death (2). In this study, varicella related school absenteeism and outpatient visits in health facilities in the surveillance sites of ISSC were collected and analyzed.
Objective
To describe the features of varicella outbreak in rural primary schools and the impacts of school absenteeism surveillance on early detection of infectious disease outbreak.