Correlation Between UpToDate Searches and Reported Cases of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome During Outbreaks in Saudi Arabia
Autor: | Amy J. Warner, Anna R. Thorner, Terrence Jiang, Peter A Bonis, Bin Cao |
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Rok vydání: | 2016 |
Předmět: |
0301 basic medicine
education 030106 microbiology Negative control Major Articles Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) epidemic intelligence 03 medical and health sciences 0302 clinical medicine Environmental health parasitic diseases medicine Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) 030212 general & internal medicine digital disease detection business.industry Outbreak medicine.disease humanities eye diseases UpToDate Infectious Diseases Oncology Optometry Middle East respiratory syndrome business geographic locations |
Zdroj: | Open Forum Infectious Diseases |
ISSN: | 2328-8957 |
Popis: | UpToDate search activity is useful for detecting and monitoring outbreaks of Middle East respiratory syndrome in Saudi Arabia. Background. UpToDate is an online clinical decision support resource that is used extensively by clinicians around the world. Digital surveillance techniques have shown promise to aid with the detection and monitoring of infectious disease outbreaks. We sought to determine whether UpToDate searches for Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) could be used to detect and monitor MERS outbreaks in Saudi Arabia. Methods. We analyzed daily searches related to MERS in Jeddah and Riyadh, Saudi Arabia during 3 outbreaks in these cities in 2014 and 2015 and compared them with reported cases during the same periods. We also compared UpToDate MERS searches in the affected cities to those in a composite of 4 negative control cities for the 2 outbreaks in 2014. Results. UpToDate MERS searches during all 3 MERS outbreaks in Saudi Arabia showed a correlation to reported cases. In addition, UpToDate MERS search volume in Jeddah and Riyadh during the outbreak periods in 2014 was significantly higher than the concurrent search volume in the 4 negative control cities. In contrast, during the baseline periods, there was no difference between UpToDate searches for MERS in the affected cities compared with the negative control cities. Conclusions. UpToDate search activity seems to be useful for detecting and monitoring outbreaks of MERS in Saudi Arabia. |
Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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