Enhanced Public Health Surveillance for the Sixth Worldwide Uchinanchu Festival Conducted by the Okinawa Prefectural Government, Japan

Abstract

Objective: The Okinawa prefectural government conducted enhanced surveillance for the Sixth Worldwide Uchinanchu Festival, with participation of more than 5300 visitors from abroad, many of whom were Okinawan or of Okinawan descent, for early detection of Zika virus disease and other potential public health threat outbreaks. Method: Enhanced surveillance conducted from 12 October through 13 November involved four surveillance systems, (Nursery) School Absenteeism Surveillance system ((N)SASSy), Prescription Surveillance (PS), and Official Syndromic Surveillance (OSS), each of them operates routinely, in addition to case-based and sentinel surveillance under the Infectious Diseases Control Law as Official National Surveillance of Infectious Diseases (ONSID). This enhanced surveillance was conducted for analysis and evaluation, with intensive information sharing among concerned parties. Result: We performed the enhanced surveillance for 33 days from 12 October through 13 November. Information from enhanced surveillance was analyzed and evaluated, and eventually summarized as a daily report. There has been one rubella case at an elementary school in Okinawa City on 20 October and a measles case at an elementary school in Uruma City on 2 November. Those two cases were registered into (N)SASSy on a timely basis. The public health center investigated them quickly, and the measles case was denied later because symptoms did not satisfy with case definition. Discussion: How to cite this paper: Yamakawa, M., Yamauchi, M., Nidaira, M., Azuma, T., Nakasone, T., Ando, F., Hayamizu, T., Kinjo, S. and Nakamura, Y. We regard enhanced surveillance as useful to confirm events that might demand a public health response. Moreover, the related including public health centers or medical institutions confirmed the situation as valuable for the administrative structure. However, because almost all (nursery) schools or pharmacies are closed during successive holidays, outbreaks that occur on such days cannot be recognized on a timely basis. More sensitive surveillance for such days, with better preparations for ambulance transfer and at emergency departments in hospitals remains as a challenge for future work.

Enhanced Surveillance for National (Handicapped) Sports Games in Wakayama, Japan 2015

“…For that reason, we do not know whether it includes patients' symptoms as Wakayama prefecture does. For example, when the enhanced surveillance was conducted for Uchinachu festival in Okinawa, Okinawa prefecture could not perform it [12] because the widespread disaster and acute medicine information systems in Okinawa prefecture did not include patient symptoms information. This experience in ATS is expected to provide a good example when prefectures other than Tokyo introduce ATS.…”

“…In Japan, enhanced surveillance had been conducted in the past for the Kyushu Okinawa Group of Eight Summit (G8 summit) 2000 [4], the FIFA World Cup 2002 competition [5] [6], the 2008 Hokkaido Toyako G8 summit meeting [7], US President Obama's visit to Japan in 2009 [8], the Yokohama meeting of Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) in 2010, the Nagoya Tenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP10) 2010 [9], the Fourth Japan-China-South Korea Trilateral Summit in 2011 [10], the Sports Festival in Tokyo in 2013 [11], the Uchinanchu festival in Okinawa 2016 [12], and the Ise-Shima G7 summit meeting of 2016. Particularly, enhanced surveillance for the Sports Festival in Tokyo in 2013 [11] was the first case of enhanced surveillance for national sports games.…”

“…Moreover, operations by local governments have been important for US President Obama's visit to Japan in 2009 [8], COP10 in 2010 [9], the Fourth Japan-China-South Korea Trilateral Summit in 2011 [10], and Uchinanchu festival in Okinawa in 2016 [12]. Such operations differ markedly from enhanced surveillance operations conducted by the central government for the G8 summit [4] [7] and the FIFA World Cup 2002 competition [5] [6].…”

Retrospective Evaluation for ORCA Surveillance Comparison with Prescription Surveillance

“…Prescription Surveillance (PS), as operated in Japan by the Japan Medical Asso-Journal of Biosciences and Medicines ciation, Japan Pharmaceutical Association, School of Pharmacy, and EM Systems Co. Ltd., has been functioning as a nationwide real-time syndromic surveillance system [1]- [7] as along with (N) SASSy which has been serving 65% of Japan [6]- [12]. Since 2009, PS has been reporting the estimated number of influenza and chicken pox patients, in addition to the numbers of patients who are prescribed drugs of certain types, based on prescriptions at pharmacies.…”

Descriptive Epidemiology for <i>Mycoplasma pneumoniae</i> Infection Using (Nursery) School Absenteeism Surveillance System, and Proposal for Countermeasures

“…The family of a student who is absent from a (nursery) school because of infectious diseases usually reports that fact to the (nursery) school. All nursery schools started to use the system in 2012 [6] [7]. In 2014, it became possible to monitor the health condition of all children in (nursery) schools from zero to eighteen years old in a timely manner.…”