Alert System to Detect Possible School-based Outbreaks of Influenza-like Illness

Abstract

To evaluate the usefulness of school absentee data in identifying outbreaks as part of syndromic surveillance, we examined data collected from public schools in Miami-Dade County, Florida, USA. An innovative automated alert system captured information about school-specific absenteeism to detect and provide real-time notification of possible outbreaks of influenza-like illness.

Keywords

• Viruses
• respiratory infections
• influenza
• schools
• surveillance
• syndromic surveillance