Varicella

Routine childhood administration of varicella-containing vaccine has resulted in the number of varicella (chickenpox) cases in Pennsylvania falling from nearly 3,000 cases in 2007 to less than 400 cases in 2017. Prior to 2018, the completeness of varicella case investigation data documented in Pennsylvania's electronic disease surveillance system (PA-NEDSS) was not routinely monitored by Department of Health (DOH) staff. A pilot project was initiated in April 2018 to monitor and improve completeness of select varicella case investigation variables.

Objective: The objective of this study was to evaluate the impact of efforts made to improve the completeness of select varicella (chickenpox) case investigation variables.

Since April 2012, an integrated syndromic surveillance system (ISSC) has been established in health facilities, pharmacies and primary schools in two rural counties of Jiangxi Province, China (1). The objective of ISSC is to integrate syndromic surveillance with case report system for infectious disease to improve the early detection of disease outbreak in rural China. Varicella is a common respiratory infectious disease among children. In most cases, it is mild but it might cause severe complications including, pneumonia, meningitis, even death (2). In this study, varicella related school absenteeism and outpatient visits in health facilities in the surveillance sites of ISSC were collected and analyzed.

Objective

To describe the features of varicella outbreak in rural primary schools and the impacts of school absenteeism surveillance on early detection of infectious disease outbreak.

Communicable diseases are underreported by physicians, especially diseases without laboratory tests. The goals of our study were to determine reporting levels for clinical chickenpox, describe clinical data elements common to chickenpox, and assess ability of an electronic syndromic surveillance system, BioSense, to capture chickenpox cases.

Varicella (chickenpox) is a highly transmissible childhood disease. Between 2010 and 2015,it displayed two epidemic waves annually among school populations in Shenzhen, China. However, their transmission dynamics remain unclear and there is no school-based vaccination programme in Shenzhen to-date. In this study, we developed a mathematical model to compare a school-based vaccination intervention scenario with a baseline (i.e. no intervention)scenario.

Objective:

To modell the transmission dynamics of varicella among school children in Shenzhen,to determine the effect of the school-based vaccination intervention.