Detecting Web Rumours with a Multilingual Ontology-Supported Text Classification System

OBJECTIVE In this paper we present a summary of the BioCaster system architecture for Web rumour surveillance, the rationale for the choices made in the system design and an empirical evaluation of topic classification accuracy for a gold-standard of English and Vietnamese news. BACKGROUND Timely surveillance of disease outbreak events of public health concern currently requires detailed and time consuming manual analysis by experts. Recently in addition to traditional information sources, the World Wide Web (Web) has offered a new modality in surveillance, but the massive collection of multilingual texts which must be processed in real time presents an enormous challenge. Among currently active Web surveillance systems is the Public… Read More

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Syndromic Surveillance for Influenza in Washington State: A Local and Regional Perspective

OBJECTIVE We explored the utility of tracking emergency department (ED) visits for febrile illness as a proxy for influenza surveillance, from both a local and a regional perspective. BACKGROUND In Washington State, near real-time analysis of ED data presents an opportunity to identify potential improvements to public health surveillance by monitoring disease trends and increasing the speed of casefinding. Syndromic surveillance data collected by Kitsap County Health District, Public Health – Seattle and King County, and Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department are shared with the Washington State Department of Health (WA DOH) to create a regional snapshot of disease activity. METHODS Three years of ED data (9/2004 – 4/2007) were examined… Read More

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Employment and Commuting Data for the Simulation of Pandemics

OBJECTIVE The objective in this study was to explore data on employment and commuting from different sources, using statistical analytic techniques together with geographical experts to obtain information to be provided to modelers in order to help them improve the employment and commuting component of their models, determine potential issues related to these data, and identify problem areas where further investigation is needed. BACKGROUND Evidence suggests that transmission within the workplace contributes significantly to the magnitude of a pandemic flu epidemic. A significant number of large organizations have a pandemic plan in place which may help in controlling this manner of transmission. These plans typically include telecommuting and other measures… Read More

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Archives

2009 Volume 7   2008 Volume 6: Original Research   Abstracts from the 2008 Conference of the International Society for Disease Surveillance Surveillance Innovations: Pages 1-73 Improving Public Health Investigation and Response: Pages 91-140 Applications of Methodologies to New Domains: Pages 161-199   Abstracts from the 2007 Conference of the International Society for Disease Surveillance Novel Applications: Pages 1-21 Data Acquisition and Processing: Pages 41-75 Analytical Methods: Pages 81-123 Public Health Practice: Pages 141-211 Evaluation and Performance: Pages 231-272   2007 Volume 2: Original Research   Abstracts from the 2006 Conference of the International Society for Disease Surveillance Automated Data Acquisition and Processing: Pages 1-30 Aberration Detection: Pages 41-75 Public… Read More

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Electronic Integrated Disease Surveillance System (EIDSS)

This paper describes the Electronic Integrated Disease Surveillance System (EIDSS) being deployed in Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Georgia, and Azerbaijan under the Biological Threat Reduction Program (BTRP) as part of the Threat Agent Detection and Response (TADR) Network. BACKGROUND The TADR Network currently supports the U.S. Government’s (USG) strategy for strengthening Biological Weapons Convention (BWC) compliance through focus on disease surveillance and investigations of suspicious outbreaks of disease in the Republics of Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Georgia and Azerbaijan. TADR is a comprehensive approach to achieving the USG’s overall BWC compliance, and consists of several components. EIDSS was developed as an integral part of the human and animal disease surveillance systems to strengthen and support… Read More

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