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The potential impact of media reporting in syndromic surveillance: an example using a possible Cryptosporidium exposure in North West England, August to September 2015

During August 2015, a boil water notice (BWN) was issued across parts of North West England following the detection of Cryptosporidium oocysts in the public water supply. Using prospective syndromic surveillance, we detected statistically significant increases in the presentation of cases of gastroe...

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Autores principales: Elliot, Alex J, Hughes, Helen E, Astbury, John, Nixon, Grainne, Brierley, Kate, Vivancos, Roberto, Inns, Thomas, Decraene, Valerie, Platt, Katherine, Lake, Iain, O’Brien, Sarah J, Smith, Gillian E
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) 2016
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5073189/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27762208
http://dx.doi.org/10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2016.21.41.30368
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author Elliot, Alex J
Hughes, Helen E
Astbury, John
Nixon, Grainne
Brierley, Kate
Vivancos, Roberto
Inns, Thomas
Decraene, Valerie
Platt, Katherine
Lake, Iain
O’Brien, Sarah J
Smith, Gillian E
author_facet Elliot, Alex J
Hughes, Helen E
Astbury, John
Nixon, Grainne
Brierley, Kate
Vivancos, Roberto
Inns, Thomas
Decraene, Valerie
Platt, Katherine
Lake, Iain
O’Brien, Sarah J
Smith, Gillian E
author_sort Elliot, Alex J
collection PubMed
description During August 2015, a boil water notice (BWN) was issued across parts of North West England following the detection of Cryptosporidium oocysts in the public water supply. Using prospective syndromic surveillance, we detected statistically significant increases in the presentation of cases of gastroenteritis and diarrhoea to general practitioner services and related calls to the national health telephone advice service in those areas affected by the BWN. In the affected areas, average in-hours general practitioner consultations for gastroenteritis increased by 24.8% (from 13.49 to 16.84) during the BWN period; average diarrhoea consultations increased by 28.5% (from 8.33 to 10.71). Local public health investigations revealed no laboratory reported cases confirmed as being associated with the water supply. These findings suggest that the increases reported by syndromic surveillance of cases of gastroenteritis and diarrhoea likely resulted from changes in healthcare seeking behaviour driven by the intense local and national media coverage of the potential health risks during the event. This study has further highlighted the potential for media-driven bias in syndromic surveillance, and the challenges in disentangling true increases in community infection from those driven by media reporting.
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spelling pubmed-50731892016-10-21 The potential impact of media reporting in syndromic surveillance: an example using a possible Cryptosporidium exposure in North West England, August to September 2015 Elliot, Alex J Hughes, Helen E Astbury, John Nixon, Grainne Brierley, Kate Vivancos, Roberto Inns, Thomas Decraene, Valerie Platt, Katherine Lake, Iain O’Brien, Sarah J Smith, Gillian E Euro Surveill Surveillance and Outbreak Report During August 2015, a boil water notice (BWN) was issued across parts of North West England following the detection of Cryptosporidium oocysts in the public water supply. Using prospective syndromic surveillance, we detected statistically significant increases in the presentation of cases of gastroenteritis and diarrhoea to general practitioner services and related calls to the national health telephone advice service in those areas affected by the BWN. In the affected areas, average in-hours general practitioner consultations for gastroenteritis increased by 24.8% (from 13.49 to 16.84) during the BWN period; average diarrhoea consultations increased by 28.5% (from 8.33 to 10.71). Local public health investigations revealed no laboratory reported cases confirmed as being associated with the water supply. These findings suggest that the increases reported by syndromic surveillance of cases of gastroenteritis and diarrhoea likely resulted from changes in healthcare seeking behaviour driven by the intense local and national media coverage of the potential health risks during the event. This study has further highlighted the potential for media-driven bias in syndromic surveillance, and the challenges in disentangling true increases in community infection from those driven by media reporting. European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) 2016-10-13 /pmc/articles/PMC5073189/ /pubmed/27762208 http://dx.doi.org/10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2016.21.41.30368 Text en This article is copyright of The Authors, 2016. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) Licence. You may share and adapt the material, but must give appropriate credit to the source, provide a link to the licence, and indicate if changes were made.
spellingShingle Surveillance and Outbreak Report
Elliot, Alex J
Hughes, Helen E
Astbury, John
Nixon, Grainne
Brierley, Kate
Vivancos, Roberto
Inns, Thomas
Decraene, Valerie
Platt, Katherine
Lake, Iain
O’Brien, Sarah J
Smith, Gillian E
The potential impact of media reporting in syndromic surveillance: an example using a possible Cryptosporidium exposure in North West England, August to September 2015
title The potential impact of media reporting in syndromic surveillance: an example using a possible Cryptosporidium exposure in North West England, August to September 2015
title_full The potential impact of media reporting in syndromic surveillance: an example using a possible Cryptosporidium exposure in North West England, August to September 2015
title_fullStr The potential impact of media reporting in syndromic surveillance: an example using a possible Cryptosporidium exposure in North West England, August to September 2015
title_full_unstemmed The potential impact of media reporting in syndromic surveillance: an example using a possible Cryptosporidium exposure in North West England, August to September 2015
title_short The potential impact of media reporting in syndromic surveillance: an example using a possible Cryptosporidium exposure in North West England, August to September 2015
title_sort potential impact of media reporting in syndromic surveillance: an example using a possible cryptosporidium exposure in north west england, august to september 2015
topic Surveillance and Outbreak Report
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5073189/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27762208
http://dx.doi.org/10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2016.21.41.30368
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