Evaluation of a National Call Center and a Local Alerts System for Detection of New Cases of Ebola Virus Disease - Guinea, 2014-2015.

The epidemic of Ebola virus disease (Ebola) in West Africa began in Guinea in late 2013 (1), and on August 8, 2014, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the epidemic a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (2). Guinea was declared Ebola-free on December 29, 2015, and is under a 90...

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Published in:MMWR: Morbidity & Mortality Weekly Report Vol. 65; no. 9; pp. 227 - 231
Main Authors: Lee, Christopher T., Bulterys, Marc, Martel, Lise D., Dahl, Benjamin A.
Format: research Journal Article
Published: Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) 3/11/2016
Online Access:View this record in EBSCOhost
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      dt: 3/11/2016
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      pub: Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC)
      place: Atlanta, Georgia
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        atl: Evaluation of a National Call Center and a Local Alerts System for Detection of New Cases of Ebola Virus Disease - Guinea, 2014-2015.
      aug:
        au:
          Lee, Christopher T.
          Bulterys, Marc
          Martel, Lise D.
          Dahl, Benjamin A.
        affil: Epidemic Intelligence Service, CDC
      sug:
        subj:
          Hemorrhagic Fever, Ebola Diagnosis
          Information Systems
          Telephone Information Services
          Population Surveillance Methods
          Disease Outbreaks
          Hemorrhagic Fever, Ebola Epidemiology
          Guinea
          Human
          Sensitivity and Specificity
          Validation Studies
          Comparative Studies
          Evaluation Research
          Multicenter Studies
      ab: The epidemic of Ebola virus disease (Ebola) in West Africa began in Guinea in late 2013 (1), and on August 8, 2014, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the epidemic a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (2). Guinea was declared Ebola-free on December 29, 2015, and is under a 90 day period of enhanced surveillance, following 3,351 confirmed and 453 probable cases of Ebola and 2,536 deaths (3). Passive surveillance for Ebola in Guinea has been conducted principally through the use of a telephone alert system. Community members and health facilities report deaths and suspected Ebola cases to local alert numbers operated by prefecture health departments or to a national toll-free call center. The national call center additionally functions as a source of public health information by responding to questions from the public about Ebola. To evaluate the sensitivity of the two systems and compare the sensitivity of the national call center with the local alerts system, the CDC country team performed probabilistic record linkage of the combined prefecture alerts database, as well as the national call center database, with the national viral hemorrhagic fever (VHF) database; the VHF database contains records of all known confirmed Ebola cases. Among 17,309 alert calls analyzed from the national call center, 71 were linked to 1,838 confirmed Ebola cases in the VHF database, yielding a sensitivity of 3.9%. The sensitivity of the national call center was highest in the capital city of Conakry (11.4%) and lower in other prefectures. In comparison, the local alerts system had a sensitivity of 51.1%. Local public health infrastructure plays an important role in surveillance in an epidemic setting.
      pubtype: Academic Journal
      doctype:
        research
        Journal Article
      ougenre: Article
    language: English
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