Syndromic surveillance of epidemic-prone diseases in response to an influx of migrants from North Africa to Italy, May to October 2011

Abstract

Following civil unrest in North Africa early in 2011, there was a large influx of migrants in Italy. A syndromic surveillance system was set up in April to monitor the health of this migrant population and respond rapidly to any health emergency. In the first six months, the system produced 67 alerts across all syndromes monitored and four alarms. There were no health emergencies, however, indicating that this migration flow was not associated with an increased risk of communicable disease transmission in Italy.

A rapid post-disaster surveillance model enabling outbreak detection and healthcare response following earthquakes on Kefalonia island, Greece, February–May 2014

“…As with other similar systems used elsewhere, the SSS performed well and fulfilled its objectives 8,[10][11][12]14 , and no unexpected or uncommon disease was reported apart from one gastroenteritis outbreak, verifying that the risk for infectious diseases after natural disasters is low 11,13,17 .…”

“…Overall, the authors conclude that even though the risk of major events after a natural disaster in a developed country is low, strengthening surveillance is needed not only for assuring the timely identification of events of public health interest but also for reassuring the authorities and the population of the absence of a major event 11,12,24 . …”

“…Several different approaches have been used for post-disaster surveillance based on the baseline surveillance systems, the surveillance needs, the population characteristics, and the geographical and political settings [8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17] . As with other similar systems used elsewhere, the SSS performed well and fulfilled its objectives 8,[10][11][12]14 , and no unexpected or uncommon disease was reported apart from one gastroenteritis outbreak, verifying that the risk for infectious diseases after natural disasters is low 11,13,17 .…”

Letter to the editor: Responding to a call for action - where are we now?

“…In 2015, with the increase in the number of people migrating into the EU, the ECDC published numerous additional documents (expert opinion/rapid risk assessments) on the topic of migrant and refugee health [3]. To guide emergency response, information on epidemic prone diseases among newly arrived migrants has been collected in some EU countries for several years through aggregated syndromic surveillance [4]. These data, however, cannot be imported into case-based national and EU surveillance systems.…”

Risks of Emerging Infectious Diseases: Evolving Threats in a Changing Area, the Mediterranean Basin

“…The implementation of syndromic surveillance in migrants proved efficient in some European countries (e.g. Riccardo et al., ). However, this surveillance system does not allow the detection of asymptomatic cases, which have to be specifically searched for in migrants arriving from areas with high incidence levels.…”