SEARCH · Search PubMed
Search indexed PubMed citations on genomics, clinical trials, systematic reviews and public health. Explore titles, authors and supplied subject terms, then open the PubMed record.
Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
AIMS: To determine variations in practice across New Zealand for the notification and contact management of meningococcal disease and recommend action. METHODS: A retrospective survey using a questionnaire conducted during August and September 1992. The disease notification component of the audit looked only at process (post notification) rather than completeness of notification. RESULTS: The results indicated that there was considerable variation in practice across the country. Concerns expressed by respondents related to the availability of and payment for prescribed prophylactic antibiotics, contact definition, protocol availability and the appropriate delegation of duties. Deficiencies were identified in the above areas of concern as well as in follow-up procedures for contacts, record keeping and communication. CONCLUSIONS: Major variations in practice across the country which may be counterproductive to outbreak control should be minimised. A minority of area health boards (AHBs) and districts have well developed protocols that could be the basis for developing standards of good practice for the whole country.
Advantages and setbacks of the existing Swiss disease notification system are reviewed. The public takes interest in the notification data output. The voluntary sentinels provide useful early warning. Currently, 60 conditions are notifiable. It is intended to lower this number to < 30. Other measures to upgrade the system include annual review and publication of an updated list of notifiable diseases, limitation to an essential core of parameters collected from physicians on initial and follow-up questionnaires, and practical advice on diagnostic and control measures provided for in questionnaires for the infectious disease under query.
The System of Infectious Disease Notification (I.D.N.) encompasses the notification of 41 infectious transmissible diseases to which are added epidemic outbreaks of any etiology or cause. In Navarra, the I.D.N.'s are reported to the Section of Vigilance and Epidemiological Control of the Public Health Institute. A sharp increase of alimentary toxic-infections is observed due to two community outbreaks produced by Salmonella enteritidis that affected 410 persons. The incidence of pulmonary tuberculosis, 15.37 cases per 100,000 inhabitants has remained at the same levels as previous years and with lower rates than those published in neighbouring Autonomous Communities such as La Rioja and the Autonomous Community of the Basque Country. In the group of Exanthematic Diseases, an outbreak of German measles is noteworthy that affected males between the ages of 16 and 20. During the year 1996 there were 17 cases of Meningococcal Disease that meant a rate of 3.27 per 100,000 inhabitants, the second lowest rate in the last 25 years after the rate of 2.29 of 1994. With respect to the causative serogroup, serogroup C was isolated on 7 occasions, serogroup B on four occasions and on 6 it could not be grouped. Hydatidosis through reports of I.D.N.'s and active search in the hospitals remained steady, with 26 cases, remaining within the regular values of recent years. An important decline with respect to recent years was observed in cases of hepatitis A, hepatitis B and brucellosis.
Effective public health control of meningococcal disease (meningococcal meningitis and septicaemia) is dependent on complete, accurate and speedy notification. Using capture-recapture techniques this study assesses the completeness, accuracy and timeliness of meningococcal notification in a health authority. The completeness of meningococcal disease notification was 94.8% (95% confidence interval 93.2% to 96.2%); 91.2% of cases in 2001 were notified within 24 hours of diagnosis, but 28.0% of notifications in 2001 were false positives. Clinical staff need to be aware of the public health implications of a notification of meningococcal disease, and of failure of, or delay in notification. Incomplete or delayed notification not only leads to inaccurate data collection but also means that important public health measures may not be taken. A clinical diagnosis of meningococcal disease should be carefully considered between the clinician and the consultant in communicable disease control (CCDC). Otherwise, prophylaxis may be given unnecessarily, disease incidence inflated, and the benefits of control measures underestimated. Consultants in communicable disease control (CCDCs), in conjunction with clinical staff, should de-notify meningococcal disease if the diagnosis changes.
STUDY OBJECTIVE: Notifiable diseases are conditions where regular, frequent and timely reporting of individual cases is considered necessary for the prevention and control of the disease. They can be classified into immediate, routine, international, and occupational notifiable diseases. Despite its importance, notification suffers some setbacks, as shown by worldwide studies. This study was carried out from August to November 1999 to assess the knowledge of disease notification among doctors at the University of Benin Teaching Hospital and Central Hospital, Benin City, Edo State, Nigeria. DESIGN: A cross-sectional study design was used, and a self-administered questionnaire, which was pretested, was used to collect data. SETTING: All doctors from the University of Benin Teaching Hospital and Central Hospital, Benin City, Edo State, Nigeria were included in the study. PARTICIPANTS: In total, 134 doctors participated in the study. MAIN RESULT: Only 11.9% of doctors had a good knowledge of disease notification. Thirty-one (23.1%) doctors knew where to obtain notification forms, and 32 (23.9%) knew how to complete these forms. CONCLUSION: Knowledge of disease notification among doctors in these major institutions is poor. It has therefore been recommended that quarterly seminars should be conducted to update doctors' knowledge and serve as reminders about disease notification.
The Acheson Report expressed concern about doctors' knowledge of the infectious disease notification system. This study was undertaken in order to quantify doctors' knowledge of the system, and guide action to improve its efficiency. A survey of 176 hospital doctors in one large Health District showed that, although 82% knew of the legal obligation to notify, 70% did not know where to obtain a notification form, and 40% did not know whom to notify. Over a third of those surveyed did not know that food poisoning and tuberculosis are notifiable diseases. Proposed changes in the law relating to infectious disease control will not compensate for such lack of knowledge. Consultants in Communicable Disease Control should take the lead in improving this vital information system.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
In May 1991 a decree supplementing the federal Epidemic Law concerning the mandatory notification of communicable diseases was implemented by the Ministry of Health in Saxony-Anhalt. This was updated and newly implemented in 1997. With implementation of the national Protection against Infection Act in 2001 further amendment of the state regulation (published in April 2005) be came necessary. The following diseases or laboratory evidence of the underlying pathogens, respectively, will now be notifiable with inclusion of the affected individual's name: aseptic meningitis, mumps, rubella, varicella, epidemickera to conjunctivitis, pertussis, and pneumococcal meningitis. The possibility of preventing further spread of the pathogen to others though immediate implementation of preventive measures by the public health service justifies notification of the individual's name. Furthermore, the epidemiological situation is to be monitored and evaluated. This also applies to Lyme disease, which will be anonymously notifiable. Particular emphasis is placed on vaccine-preventable diseases in the state regulation for mandatory notification in Saxony-Anhalt, since priority is placed on attaining the health goal "age-appropriate vaccination status in over 90% of the population". The state-specific notification regulation of Saxony-Anhalt has worked well in preventing and controlling communicable diseases. It is a source of reliable data, which may be helpful in the discussion regarding the amendment of the Protection against Infection Act. Non-anonymous notification should be enforced nationally at least for all vaccine-preventable diseases for which a post-exposure vaccination is recommended by the Standing Committee on Vaccination (STIKO).
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Epidemiological vigilance in Navarre covers 34 transmissible diseases, whose notification is compulsory, and epidemic outbreaks of any aetiology. Notification is carried out on a weekly basis by the doctors from paediatrics, primary and specialised level who suspect or diagnose any of these diseases. In 2003, 75.0% of all the possible notification reports (a weekly report for each doctor) were received, a percentage that has improved in the last five year period. In 2003, Influenza reached a rate of 48.9 cases per 1,000 inhabitants (Epidemic Index, EI: 0.91), showing an epidemic peak in January and another in November. The rate of respiratory tuberculosis was 11.76 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, and the rate of non-respiratory tuberculosis was 1.90, with a continuous trend to decrease in both cases. Five cases of tuberculosis occurred in two small family outbreaks. Thirty percent of the cases were produced in immigrants. The cases coinfected with HIV have fallen from 21% in 1996 to 2.5% in 2003. Fifteen cases of meningococcal disease were reported, (2.6 cases per 100,000 inhabitants), appearing in a sporadic form. Neisseria meningitidis serogroup B was isolated in 10 cases, and serogroup C in 5 cases. Eighty percent appeared in the form of sepsis, and death occurred in one case (6.7%). All of the cases younger than six years of age were vaccinated and belonged to serogroup B. The incidence of Legionnaire's disease was 3.8 cases per 100,000 inhabitants (EI: 0.92), without any epidemiological relation between them. There were 7 cases of malaria, all imported. The incidence of food borne infections has fallen (EI: 0.71).
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
BACKGROUND: In Lower Saxony the analysis of notification data according to the infection protection law is based on two pillars: one pillar is the weekly analysis to identify clusters and locally non-detectable outbreaks by an early warning system. The second pillar is an annual reporting system for obtaining an overall picture and for identifying long-term trends. In both fields methods of spatial statistics are applied. METHODS: For the 16 most frequent notifiable diseases, the notification data of the districts of Lower Saxony are analysed and presented on the Internet. The presentation starts with an overview page, on which differences between observed and expected case counts for these diseases are presented tabulated and graphically. On a separate page for each disease the temporal and spatial distribution is shown by means of the following graphs: Time series presentation (weekly case counts and moving averages), chloropleth map of regional incidence rates and dot map of regional case counts. For identification of outbreaks, Kulldorff's "scan statistic" is used to search the data for clusters and to assess the significance of these clusters. The methods are executed mainly automatically using predominantly public domain software. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION: The approach attempts to meet the surveillance principle of providing the participants with immediate feedback. The scan statistics is a universal objective instrument for detecting and assessing spatial clusters. A special advantage is the identification of clusters which include several districts. The properties of the identified clusters (spatial extension, number of cases) offer some insight into the characteristic epidemiology of the diseases.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
In 2002, the internet based reporting system OSIRIS was introduced in the Netherlands and by the end of that year had fully replaced the paper-based reporting system. The objectives of OSIRIS were to improve timeliness and completeness of surveillance data on infectious diseases reported from regional to national level. We compared the timeliness of infectious diseases reported by the conventional paper-based system in 2001 with those reported by OSIRIS in 2003. Two distinct types of delay were compared: (1) total delay: defined as time between symptom onset and reporting at national level and (2) central delay: defined as time between regional and national reporting. Median delays between both systems were compared using the Wilcoxon Rank Sum-Test. We also compared electronic reports received via OSIRIS in 2003 to those received through the conventional system for 2001 for completeness of specific data fields. The Fisher exact test and the Mantel-Haenzel test with Yates correction were used to determine the significance of proportions of completed data fields in each system. Results showed the median central delay was significantly reduced for all diseases in OSIRIS compared to conventional reporting system. Overall, the median central delay was reduced from 10 days (interquartile range 4) in 2001 to 1 day (interquartile range 1) in 2003. Except for cases of malaria, the total delay, from symptom onset to national reporting, was also significantly reduced. In addition, OSIRIS records contained more complete information than conventional records. In total, in 2003, 92.3% of data field examined were complete compared with 81.3% in 2001. This study documents the benefits of electronic reporting of infectious disease surveillance data in terms of improved timeliness and completeness.