Influenza is one of the significant causes of morbidity and mortality globally. Previous studies have demonstrated the benefit of laboratory surveillance and its capability to accurately detect influenza outbreaks earlier than syndromic surveillance.1-3 Current laboratory surveillance has an approximately 4-week lag due to laboratory test turn-around time, data collection and data analysis. As part of strengthening influenza virus surveillance in response to the 2009 influenza A (H1N1) pandemic, the real-time laboratory-based influenza surveillance system, the Bangkok Dusit Medical Services Surveillance System (BDMS-SS), was developed in 2010 by the Bangkok Health Research Center (BHRC). The primary objective of the BDMS-SS is to alert relevant stakeholders on the incidence trends of the influenza virus. Type-specific results along with patient demographic and geographic information were available to physicians and uploaded for public health awareness within 24 hours after patient nasopharyngeal swab was collected. This system advances early warning and supports better decision making during infectious disease events.2 The BDMS-SS operates all year round collecting results of all routinely tested respiratory clinical samples from participating hospitals from the largest group of private hospitals in Thailand.
Objective:
We describe the Bangkok Dusit Medical Services Surveillance System (BDMS-SS) and use of surveillance efforts for influenza as an example of surveillance capability in near real-time among a network of 20 hospitals in the Bangkok Dusit Medical Services group (BDMS).