Use of Unstructured Event-Based Reports for Global Infectious Disease Surveillance

Keller, Mikaela; Blench, Michael; Tolentino, Herman; Freifeld, Clark C.; Mandl, Kenneth D.; Mawudeku, Abla; Eysenbach, Gunther; Brownstein, John S.

doi:10.3201/eid1505.081114

Title: Use of Unstructured Event-Based Reports for Global Infectious Disease Surveillance

Journal Article · 01 May 2009 · Emerging Infectious Diseases

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3201/eid1505.081114 · OSTI ID:1904910

Keller, Mikaela ^[1]; Blench, Michael ^[2]; Tolentino, Herman ^[3]; Freifeld, Clark C. ^[4]; Mandl, Kenneth D. ^[4]; Mawudeku, Abla ^[2]; Eysenbach, Gunther ^[5]; Brownstein, John S. ^[4]

Harvard-MIT Division of Health Science and Technology, Boston, MA (United States); Children's Hospital Boston, MA (United States); Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA (United States); OSTI
Public Health Agency of Canada, Ottawa, ON (Canada)
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Atlanta, GA (United States)
Harvard-MIT Division of Health Science and Technology, Boston, MA (United States); Children's Hospital Boston, MA (United States); Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA (United States)
Univ. of Toronto, ON (Canada); University Health Network, Toronto, ON (Canada)

Free or low-cost sources of unstructured information, such as Internet news and online discussion sites, provide detailed local and near real-time data on disease outbreaks, even in countries that lack traditional public health surveillance. To improve public health surveillance and, ultimately, interventions, we examined 3 primary systems that process event-based outbreak information: Global Public Health Intelligence Network, HealthMap, and EpiSPIDER. Despite similarities among them, these systems are highly complementary because they monitor different data types, rely on varying levels of automation and human analysis, and distribute distinct information. Future development should focus on linking these systems more closely to public health practitioners in the fi eld and establishing collaborative networks for alert verifi cation and dissemination. Such development would further establish event-based monitoring as an invaluable public health resource that provides critical context and an alternative to traditional indicator-based outbreak reporting.

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Research Organization:: Oak Ridge Inst. for Science and Education (ORISE), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: National Institutes of Health (NIH); USDOE Office of Science (SC)

Grant/Contract Number:: SC0014664

OSTI ID:: 1904910

Journal Information:: Emerging Infectious Diseases, Journal Name: Emerging Infectious Diseases Journal Issue: 5 Vol. 15; ISSN 1080-6040

Publisher:: Centers for Disease Control and PreventionCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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