GI Illness

The HEDSS system was implemented in 2004 to monitor disease activity [1]. Twenty of 32 emergency departments (ED) and 1 urgent care clinic provide data. Chief complaints are routinely categorized into 8 syndromes. Although previous studies have shown that ED syndomic surveillance is not useful for early detection of GI outbreaks [2], it has demonstrated utility in monitoring trends in seasonal norovirus activity[3]. An evaluation to assess the utility of HEDSS to characterize endemic and out-break levels of GI illness has not been previously conducted in Connecticut.

Objective

To evaluate the utility of the Connecticut Hospital Emergency Department Syndromic Surveillance System (HEDSS) to monitor gastrointestinal (GI) illness in the community.

People usually celebrate holidays by inviting family and friends to have food at home, or by gathering and eating at restaurants or in other public venues. This increased exposure to food with a common source can create conditions for outbreaks of gastrointestinal illnesses. Holidays can also be targeted by bioterrorists who seek to maximize physical damage, psychological impact, and publicity around dates of patriotic or religious significance. They might aim at contaminating food and water supplies, especially with CDC-defined category B agents that can cause diseases such as salmonellosis, shigellosis, cholera, crytosporidiosis, as well as infections with Escherichia coli O157:H7 and the Epsilon toxin of Clostridium perfringens. Hence, there is a need to quantify whether gastrointestinal illnesses increase around holidays. This can also help determine a baseline of the incidence to which future holiday periods should be compared to. This research does not focus on specific reportable diseases. That will be the purpose of forthcoming research. Instead, ED visits with gastrointestinal symptoms are used to leverage the capability of syndromic surveillance for early detection.

Objective

To quantify Emergency Department (ED) visits with gastrointestinal symptoms during Federal holidays in Miami-Dade.

Epidemic acute gastroenteritis (AGE) is a major contributor to the global burden of morbidity and mortality. Rotavirus and norovirus epidemics present a significant burden annually, with their predominant impact in temperate climates occurring during winter periods. Annually, epidemic rotavirus causes an estimated 600,000 deaths worldwide, and 70,000 hospitalizations in the US, primarily among children <5 years of age. The US burden from norovirus is estimated at 71,000 hospitalizations annually, with the impact more generally across age groups. Changes in rotavirus vaccine use have significantly reduced the impact of epidemic rotavirus.

Objective 

We describe the initial phase of the ISDS Distribute pilot for monitoring AGE syndromic emergency department visits, and present preliminary analysis of age-specific trends documenting a dramatic shift in AGE consistent with US rotavirus vaccine policy and use.

The CDC recently developed sub-syndromes for classifying disease to enhance syndromic surveillance of natural outbreaks and bioterrorism. They have developed ICD9 classifiers for six GI Illness subsyndromes: Abdominal Pain, Nausea and Vomiting, Diarrhea, Anorexia, Intestinal infections, and Food poisoning. If the number of visits for sub-syndromes varies significantly by age it may impact the design of outbreak detection methods.

Objective

We hypothesized that the percentage of visits for the GI sub-syndromes varied significantly with age.

Syndromic surveillance had been implemented in Dongcheng District with a view to probing into the feasibility of establishing a syndromic surveillance system in major Chinese cities, sieving syndromic surveillance indicators applicable to the eruption of infectious respiratory tract and digestive tract diseases, and attempting the operating method of data collection in different locations such as hospital and drug stores in Dongcheng of Beijing China.

Objective

The project has fund donated by World Bank under joint management of WHO and Ministry of Health of P.R.China , The target was try to build up a syndromic surveillance system in Beijing.

The interest of medication sales data in Syndromic Surveillance is well recognized. In France, where a real-time computerized surveillance system of frequent communicable diseases based on Sentinel general practitioners (SGPs) provides since 1984 a gold standard to evaluate other indicators, it has been shown that medication sales provided early alerts for influenza. Gastroenteritis surveillance relies in France on the surveillance of acute diarrhea by the SGPs in the general population, since 1991. The main objective of this study is to validate, at a national level, new indicators based on medication sales data to facilitate the detection of gastroenteritis epidemics.

Objective

This study examines how medication sales data can detect gastroenteritis epidemics in France.

We report on a retrospective analysis of gastrointestinal syndrome definitions based on chief complaints and ICD9 diagnosis for gastroenteritis during the 2006-07 season of increased norovirus activity.

To highlight the key role of Emergency Department syn-dromic surveillance in linking acute care and public health, thus enabling collaborative detection, monitoring and management of a local food borne outbreak.