Over-the-counter Medication Sales Surveillance for Early Detection of Respiratory Epidemics in Rural China

Respiratory infectious diseases are the most common diseases reported in rural China. Studies have suggested that the OTC retail sale data could be used to detect early outbreak (1, 2). However, few researches have performed to identify whether OTC retail sales data could also predict the outbreak in developing countries and resource poor settings. Here, we conducted a web-based syndromic surveillance system with OTC retail sales to detect respiratory epidemics in rural area in China.

Objective

To explore the feasibility of using OTC medication sales data for early detection of respiratory epidemics in rural China.