Highlights
- Syndromic surveillance is known for supporting early detection of emerging health threats, but it can also enhance routine reporting of notifiable diseases.
- Analysts at the Georgia Department of Public Health use syndromic surveillance to strengthen case-based surveillance of varicella (chickenpox).
- Georgia’s results showed that patients identified through emergency department data were detected early, compared with other reporting sources.
Public health problem
Syndromic surveillance is an essential part of a comprehensive public health surveillance system because of its versatility. Not only can syndromic surveillance be used for early detection of emerging health threats, but it can also enhance routine reporting of notifiable diseases. Public health analysts often use emergency department data to collect suspect case reports. Although traditional and syndromic surveillance reporting methods collect data differently, they can be used in tandem to monitor for disease and injury that affect public health.
What CDC Says About Chickenpox
Chickenpox can be serious, even life-threatening, especially in babies, adolescents, adults, pregnant women, and people with weakened immune systems.2 It is one of many diseases that public health departments monitor to protect the health of people in their communities.
Getting vaccinated is the best way to prevent chickenpox. Check the vaccination guidelines for the latest timing recommendations.
Actions taken
GDPH conducts case-based surveillance for notifiable conditions, including vaccine preventable diseases. (For details, visit the GDPH webpage: https://dph.georgia.gov/vaccine-preventable-diseases.) Analysts at GDPH use syndromic surveillance to strengthen case-based surveillance of varicella (chickenpox).1 They used syndromic data from visits to urgent care centers and emergency departments that mentioned "varicella" or "chickenpox" in the discharge diagnosis to identify suspect varicella reports. Then they assessed the accuracy of all reporting sources, including laboratories, health care providers, and schools. They compared features of varicella reported through syndromic surveillance of automated electronic emergency department data to varicella reported through other sources.
Outcome
Early intervention is key to preventing others from getting the disease. Georgia's results showed that patients identified through emergency department data were detected early, compared with other reporting sources. Among the reporting sources assessed, syndromic data ranked second highest in detecting varicella cases, and these patients were much less likely to be associated with an outbreak. Public health departments are finding that other reportable conditions can also be detected early using syndromic surveillance.
Resources
René Borroto
Syndromic Surveillance Epidemiologist and Program Coordinator
Georgia Department of Public Health
Rene.borroto@dph.ga.gov
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Office of Public Health Data, Surveillance, and Technology
Detect and Monitor Division
www.cdc.gov/nssp
We thank Carolyn Adam for writing this story. For more information, email René Borroto at Rene.borroto@dph.ga.gov.
The findings and outcomes described in this syndromic success story are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official position of the National Syndromic Surveillance Program or the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.