Contents Archives - Isds Journal

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

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

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