%0 Journal Article
%T Event-based internet biosurveillance: relation to epidemiological observation
%A Noele P Nelson
%A Li Yang
%A Aimee R Reilly
%A Jessica E Hardin
%A David M Hartley
%J Emerging Themes in Epidemiology
%D 2012
%I BioMed Central
%R 10.1186/1742-7622-9-4
%X We reviewed and compared WHO epidemiological data and Argus biosurveillance system data for pandemic (H1N1) 2009 (April 2009 ¨C January 2010) from 8 regions and 122 countries to: identify reliable alert criteria among 15 Argus-defined categories; determine the degree of data correlation for disease progression; and assess timeliness of Internet information.Argus generated a total of 1,580 unique alerts; 5 alert categories generated statistically significant (p£¿<£¿0.05) correlations with WHO case count data; the sum of these 5 categories was highly correlated with WHO case data (r£¿=£¿0.81, p£¿<£¿0.0001), with expected differences observed among the 8 regions. Argus reported first confirmed cases on the same day as WHO for 21 of the first 64 countries reporting cases, and 1 to 16£¿days (average 1.5£¿days) ahead of WHO for 42 of those countries.Confirmed pandemic (H1N1) 2009 cases collected by Argus and WHO methods returned consistent results and confirmed the reliability and timeliness of Internet information. Disease-specific alert criteria provide situational awareness and may serve as proxy indicators to event progression and escalation in lieu of traditional surveillance data; alerts may identify early-warning indicators to another pandemic, preparing the public health community for disease events.The World Health Organization (WHO) collects and publishes databases of statistics on confirmed and suspected disease outbreaks for select infectious diseases. The 2005 International Health Regulations (IHR), designed to ensure timely recognition of outbreaks of infectious disease with the potential to spread widely, requires WHO member nations to report outbreaks of international concern to the WHO within 24 hours of discovery [1-3]. Consistent with the IHR, during the initial months of the pandemic (H1N1) 2009 WHO requested that countries report the initial cases and thereafter the number of confirmed cases, and deaths in confirmed cases, for as long as feasible [4]. The WHO
%K Biosurveillance
%K Infectious disease
%K Epidemiology
%K Disease-specific alerts
%K Internet media
%K Early warning
%K Pandemic (H1N1) 2009
%K Situational awareness
%K Outbreak detection
%U http://www.ete-online.com/content/9/1/4