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Published in: European Journal of Epidemiology 1/2008

01-01-2008 | Infectious Diseases

A 5-year comparison of performance of sentinel and mandatory notification surveillance systems for measles in Switzerland

Authors: Jean-Luc Richard, Beatriz Vidondo, Mirjam Mäusezahl

Published in: European Journal of Epidemiology | Issue 1/2008

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Abstract

A sensitive, specific and timely surveillance is necessary to monitor progress towards measles elimination. We evaluated the performance of sentinel and mandatory-based surveillance systems for measles in Switzerland during a 5-year period by comparing 145 sentinel and 740 mandatory notified cases. The higher proportion of physicians who reported at least one case per year in the sentinel system suggests underreporting in the recently introduced mandatory surveillance for measles. Accordingly, the latter reported 2–36-fold lower estimates for incidence rates than the sentinel surveillance. However, these estimates were only 0.6–12-fold lower when we considered confirmed cases alone, which indicates a higher specificity of the mandatory surveillance system. In contrast, the sentinel network, which covers 3.5% of all outpatient consultations, detected only weakly and late a major national measles epidemic in 2003 and completely missed 2 of 10 cantonal outbreaks. Despite its better timeliness and greater sensitivity in case detection, the sentinel system, in the current situation of low incidence, is insufficient to perform measles control and to monitor progress towards elimination.
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Metadata
Title
A 5-year comparison of performance of sentinel and mandatory notification surveillance systems for measles in Switzerland
Authors
Jean-Luc Richard
Beatriz Vidondo
Mirjam Mäusezahl
Publication date
01-01-2008
Publisher
Springer Netherlands
Published in
European Journal of Epidemiology / Issue 1/2008
Print ISSN: 0393-2990
Electronic ISSN: 1573-7284
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10654-007-9187-1

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