Algorithms for detecting anomalous events can be divided into those that are designed to detect specific diseases and those that are non-specific in what they detect. Specific detection methods determine if patterns in the data are consistent with known outbreak diseases, as for example influenza. These methods are usually Bayesian. Non-specific detection methods attempt broadly to detect devia...

OBJECTIVE To develop a probabilistic model for discovering and quantifying determinants of outbreak detection and to use the model to predict detection performance for new outbreaks. MATERIALS AND METHODS We used an existing software platform to simulate waterborne disease outbreaks of varying duration and magnitude. The simulated data were overlaid on real data from visits to emergency depar...

Dengue is a critical communicable and vector-borne disease and is becoming a serious concern in Malaysia. It is important to have an early detection system that could provide immediate action, such as the control of dengue transmission at a specific location. However, the available strategy and action may give long-term effects to the community since inaccurate decision making or prediction may...

Faced with the very real threat of bioterrorism, the critical need for early detection of an outbreak has shortened the time frame for major enhancements to our public health infrastructure. The early detection of covert biological attacks requires real time data streams revealing of the health of the population, as well as novel methods to detect abnormalities.

Disease outbreak detection, monitoring and notification systems are increasingly gaining popularity since these systems are designed to assess threats to public health and disease outbreaks are becoming increasingly common world-wide. A variety of systems are in use around the world, with coverage of national, international and global disease outbreaks. These systems use different taxonomies an...

Timely detection of an inhalational anthrax outbreak is critical for clinical and public health management. Syndromic surveillance has received considerable investment, but little is known about how it will perform relative to routine clinical case finding for detection of an inhalational anthrax outbreak. We conducted a simulation study to compare clinical case finding with syndromic surveilla...

BACKGROUND Five outbreaks of ebola occurred in Uganda between 2000-2012. The outbreaks were quickly contained in rural areas. However, the Gulu outbreak in 2000 was the largest and complex due to insurgency. It invaded Gulu municipality and the slum- like camps of the internally displaced persons (IDPs). The Bundigugyo district outbreak followed but was detected late as a new virus. The subsequ...

BACKGROUND In the winter and spring of 2011 a large outbreak of cryptosporidiosis occurred in Skellefteå municipality, Sweden. This study summarizes the outbreak investigation in terms of outbreak size, duration, clinical characteristics, possible source(s) and the potential for earlier detection using calls to a health advice line. METHODS The investigation included two epidemiological quest...

OBJECTIVE Broadly, this research aims to improve the outbreak detection performance and, therefore, the cost effectiveness of automated syndromic surveillance systems by building novel, recombinant temporal aberration detection algorithms from components of previously developed detectors. METHODS This study decomposes existing temporal aberration detection algorithms into two sequential stage...