Sentinel Surveillance: an option for surveillance of infectious intestinal disease

C Gauci; T Melillo Fenech; H Gilles; S O'Brien; J Mamo; I Stabile; N Calleja; F Ruggeri; L Cuschieri

doi:10.2807/esm.12.04.00703-en

Sentinel Surveillance: an option for surveillance of infectious intestinal disease

Euro Surveill. 2007 Apr 1;12(4):E13-4. doi: 10.2807/esm.12.04.00703-en.

Authors

C Gauci¹, T Melillo Fenech, H Gilles, S O'Brien, J Mamo, I Stabile, N Calleja, F Ruggeri, L Cuschieri

Affiliation

¹ Disease Surveillance Unit, Department of Public Health, Malta. charmaine.gauci@gov.mt

PMID: 17991385
DOI: 10.2807/esm.12.04.00703-en

Abstract

Sentinel surveillance systems offer advantages over passive surveillance which is known to have limitations due to incomplete reporting. Sentinel surveillance gathering data from selected sources was piloted as an option for surveillance of infectious intestinal disease (IID) in Malta. Between October 2004 and May 2005, 22 general practitioners (GPs) voluntarily participated in the study and reported on the number of IID cases (by age and sex) and all primary care encounters in their practice. The GPs' reporting activity lasted for 35 weeks, covering a total of 55,425 primary care encounters, of which 1.95% concerned IID. For every case reported via the routine passive notification system, seven cases would be picked up by this enhanced sentinel surveillance.

MeSH terms

Communicable Diseases / diagnosis*
Communicable Diseases / epidemiology*
Disease Notification / methods*
Disease Notification / statistics & numerical data
Disease Outbreaks / statistics & numerical data*
Humans
Incidence
Intestinal Diseases / diagnosis*
Intestinal Diseases / epidemiology*
Malta / epidemiology
Population Surveillance / methods
Risk Assessment / methods
Risk Factors
Sentinel Surveillance*