Evaluating syndromic surveillance systems at institutions of higher education (IHEs): a retrospective analysis of the 2009 H1N1 influenza pandemic at two universities.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Syndromic surveillance has been widely adopted as a real-time monitoring tool for timely response to disease outbreaks. During the second wave of the pH1N1 pandemic in Fall 2009, two major universities in Washington, DC collected data that were potentially indicative of influenza-like illness (ILI) cases in students and staff. In this study, our objectives were three-fold. The primary goal of this study was to characterize the impact of pH1N1 on the campuses as clearly as possible given the data available and their likely biases. In addition, we sought to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the data series themselves, in order to inform these two universities and other institutions of higher education (IHEs) about real-time surveillance systems that are likely to pr

SUBMITTER: Zhang Y 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3151236 | biostudies-literature | 2011 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature