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France

Description

The ASTER system aims at providing an integrated real time epidemiological status of all the French Forces deployed abroad1. But, unlike usual surveillance systems, ASTER must cover several target populations exposed to different biological and chemical threats, and the surveillance of each population must be tailored to meet its specific risk profile2. Moreover, a surveillance may change at any moment, depending on the evolution of the nature of the threats. For coping with these highly varying surveillance profiles within a same surveillance system, we have developed a formal surveillance system model we have used for designing the collaborations of the system components and allowing the required surveillance versatility.

Objective

This paper briefly describes the model for surveillance system design that is used by the ASTER system, which is progressively deployed within the French Forces.

Submitted by elamb on
Description

In July 2006, an important heat wave occurred in France, and generated alarm of all the public health services. In Gironde, a department in region Aquitaine, the level of "warning and actions" of the Heat Health Watch Warning System, based on an analysis of weather-mortality relationship, was activated from the 16th and the 27th of July, when the limits of biometeorological indicators were reached [1].

Objective

To assess health impact of heat wave occurred in July 2006 through data from emergency activity and mortality from syndromic surveillance systems in Gironde, a department in south-western France.

Submitted by elamb on
Description

In France, surveillance of seasonal gastroenteritis uses to be monitored by an information system based on a computer network of physicians so called Sentinel Network (1). Regionally, the use of this system as limitations. SOS Medecin is an organization of general practitioners, present in many French cities, which undertakes home medical visits 24hrs a day, 7 days a week. In Bordeaux, this organization makes a daily transmission of every diagnostic related to their visits.

Objective

To construct an indicator adapted for syndromic surveillance of seasonal gastroenteritis based on data from "SOS Medecin" in the city of Bordeaux, France.

Submitted by elamb on
Description

The pilot near real time surveillance system ASTER, which currently monitors the French Forces in Djibouti and French Guiana [1], has been especially designed for inter-allied interoperability. This paper briefly describes the rationale of this system's interoperability framework and components, and its results from a 4 years long experience.

Submitted by elamb on
Description

Since 2004, the French syndromic surveillance system SurSaUD® coordinated by the French Public Health Agency (Sante publique France) daily collects morbidity data from two data sources: the emergency departments (ED) network Oscour® and the emergency general practitioners associations SOS Medecins. Almost 92% of the French ED attendances are recorded by the system. SOS Medecins network is a group of 62 associations of general practitioners, dispatched all over the territory. Sante publique France received data from 61 out of 62 associations. Both data sources collect medical diagnosis, using ICD10 codes in the ED network and specific medical thesaurus in SOS Medecins associations. These data are routinely analyzed to detect and follow-up various expected or unusual public health events all over the territory. The system is also used for reassurance of decision makers. In that framework, in March 2017, the French Ministry of Health requested Sante publique France to validate a potential scarlet fever outbreak in France.

Objective:

Describe a case study of validation of a scarlet fever outbreak using syndromic surveillance data sources.

Submitted by elamb on
Description

The syndromic surveillance SurSaUD® system developed by Sante© publique France, the French National Public Health Agency collects daily data from 4 data sources: emergency departments (OSCOUR® ED network), emergency general practioners (SOS Medecins network), crude mortality (civil status data) and electronic death certification including causes of death. The system aims to timely identify, follow and assess the health impact of unusual or seasonal events on emergency medical activity and mortality. However some information could be missed by the system especially for non-severe (absence of ED consultation) or, in contrast, highly severe purposes (direct access to intensive care units). The French pre-hospital emergency medical service (SAMU) represents a potential valuable data source to complete the SurSaUD® surveillance system, thanks to reactive pre-hospital data collection and a large geographical coverage on the whole territory. Data are still not completely standardized and computerized but a governmental project to develop a national common IT system involving all French SAMU is in progress and will be experimented in the following years.

Objective:

To evaluate whether SAMU data could be relevant for health surveillance and proposed to be integrated into the French national syndromic surveillance SurSaUD® system.

Submitted by elamb on