TY - JOUR
T1 - Public health considerations for transitioning beyond the acute phase of the COVID-19 pandemic in the EU/EEA
AU - The Israeli Respiratory Viruses Surveillance Network (IRVSN)
AU - Glatman-Freedman, Aharona
AU - Gur-Arie, Lea
AU - Sefty, Hanna
AU - Kaufman, Zalman
AU - Bromberg, Michal
AU - Dichtiar, Rita
AU - Rosenberg, Alina
AU - Pando, Rakefet
AU - Nemet, Ital
AU - Kliker, Limor
AU - Mendelson, Ella
AU - Keinan-Boker, Lital
AU - Zuckerman, Neta S.
AU - Mandelboim, Michal
AU - Elasal, Amer Abu
AU - Akkerman, Arkady
AU - Alkan-Helman, Yoav
AU - Amar, Sharona
AU - Amitay, Keren
AU - Amsel, Shlomo
AU - Bitton, Amnon
AU - Brek, Wadia
AU - Caraco, Yoseph
AU - Cohen-Naor, Vered
AU - Daka, Gihan
AU - Essebag, Galina
AU - Gerstein, Maya
AU - Glustein, Joseph Z.
AU - Grinfeld, Mirella
AU - Hass, Yael T.
AU - Heiman, Sophia
AU - Zhuravel, Svetlana
AU - Kaganov, Maria
AU - Kehely, Yousef
AU - Kazakov, Arakadi
AU - Kaizimov, Naila
AU - Kliminski, Ella
AU - Laks, Yoseph
AU - Loubman, Nina
AU - Lumelsky, Nadia
AU - Marcus, Nir
AU - Massarwa, Omar
AU - Mazor, Oded
AU - Noach, Suzie
AU - Neudorfer, Orit
AU - Offer-Yaacov, Reuth
AU - Vereanu, Sorana Oskar
AU - Plotquin, Gabriel
AU - Riman-Dar, Alla
AU - Rimar, Yosef
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC). All rights reserved.
PY - 2022/4/21
Y1 - 2022/4/21
N2 - Background: The COVID-19 pandemic presented new challenges for the existing respiratory surveillance systems, and adaptations were implemented. Systematic assessment of the syndromic and sentinel surveillance platforms during the pandemic is essential for understanding the value of each platform in the context of an emerging pathogen with rapid global spread. Aim: We aimed to evaluate systematically the performance of various respiratory syndromic surveillance platforms and the sentinel surveillance system in Israel from 1 January to 31 December 2020. Methods: We compared the 2020 syndromic surveillance trends to those of the previous 3 years, using Poisson regression adjusted for overdispersion. To assess the performance of the sentinel clinic system as compared with the national SARS-CoV-2 repository, a cubic spline with 7 knots and 95% confidence intervals were applied to the sentinel network's weekly percentage of positive SARS-CoV-2 cases. Results: Syndromic surveillance trends changed substantially during 2020, with a statistically significant reduction in the rates of visits to physicians and emergency departments to below previous years' levels. Morbidity patterns of the syndromic surveillance platforms were inconsistent with the progress of the pandemic, while the sentinel surveillance platform was found to reflect the national circulation of SARS-CoV-2 in the population. Conclusion: Our findings reveal the robustness of the sentinel clinics platform for the surveillance of the main respiratory viruses during the pandemic and possibly beyond. The robustness of the sentinel clinics platform during 2020 supports its use in locations with insufficient resources for widespread testing of respiratory viruses.
AB - Background: The COVID-19 pandemic presented new challenges for the existing respiratory surveillance systems, and adaptations were implemented. Systematic assessment of the syndromic and sentinel surveillance platforms during the pandemic is essential for understanding the value of each platform in the context of an emerging pathogen with rapid global spread. Aim: We aimed to evaluate systematically the performance of various respiratory syndromic surveillance platforms and the sentinel surveillance system in Israel from 1 January to 31 December 2020. Methods: We compared the 2020 syndromic surveillance trends to those of the previous 3 years, using Poisson regression adjusted for overdispersion. To assess the performance of the sentinel clinic system as compared with the national SARS-CoV-2 repository, a cubic spline with 7 knots and 95% confidence intervals were applied to the sentinel network's weekly percentage of positive SARS-CoV-2 cases. Results: Syndromic surveillance trends changed substantially during 2020, with a statistically significant reduction in the rates of visits to physicians and emergency departments to below previous years' levels. Morbidity patterns of the syndromic surveillance platforms were inconsistent with the progress of the pandemic, while the sentinel surveillance platform was found to reflect the national circulation of SARS-CoV-2 in the population. Conclusion: Our findings reveal the robustness of the sentinel clinics platform for the surveillance of the main respiratory viruses during the pandemic and possibly beyond. The robustness of the sentinel clinics platform during 2020 supports its use in locations with insufficient resources for widespread testing of respiratory viruses.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85168551640&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2022.27.17.2200155
DO - 10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2022.27.17.2200155
M3 - ???researchoutput.researchoutputtypes.contributiontojournal.article???
C2 - 35451365
AN - SCOPUS:85168551640
SN - 1025-496X
VL - 27
JO - Eurosurveillance
JF - Eurosurveillance
IS - 16
ER -