The late health events such as the heat wave of 2003 showed the need to make public health surveillance evolve in France. Thus, the French Institute for Public Health Surveillance has developed syndromic surveillance systems based on several information sources such as emergency departments. In Reunion Island, the chikungunya outbreak of 2005-2006, then the influenza pandemic of 2009 contributed to the implementation and the development of this surveillance system. In the past years, this tool allowed to follow and measure the impact of seasonal epidemics. Nevertheless, its usefulness for the detection of minor unusual events had yet to be demonstrated.
Objective
To show with examples that syndromic surveillance system can be a reactive tool for public health surveillance.