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Elliot, Alex J., Hughes, Helen E., Astbury, John, Nixon, Grainne, Brierley, Kate, Vivancos, Roberto, Inns, Thomas, Decraene, Valerie, Platt, Katherine, Lake, Iain 
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4407-5357, O’Brien, Sarah J. and Smith, Gillian E.
(2016)
The potential impact of media reporting in syndromic surveillance: An example using a possible Cryptosporidium exposure in North West England, August to September 2015.
Eurosurveillance, 21 (41).
ISSN 1560-7917
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Abstract
During August 2015, a boil water notice (BWN) was issued across parts of North West England following the detection of Cryptosporidium oocysts in the public water supply. Using prospective syndromic surveillance, we detected statistically significant increases in the presentation of cases of gastroenteritis and diarrhoea to general practitioner services and related calls to the national health telephone advice service in those areas affected by the BWN. In the affected areas, average in-hours general practitioner consultations for gastroenteritis increased by 24.8% (from 13.49 to 16.84) during the BWN period; average diarrhoea consultations increased by 28.5% (from 8.33 to 10.71). Local public health investigations revealed no laboratory reported cases confirmed as being associated with the water supply. These findings suggest that the increases reported by syndromic surveillance of cases of gastroenteritis and diarrhoea likely resulted from changes in healthcare seeking behaviour driven by the intense local and national media coverage of the potential health risks during the event. This study has further highlighted the potential for media-driven bias in syndromic surveillance, and the challenges in disentangling true increases in community infection from those driven by media reporting.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Additional Information: | This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) Licence. You may share and adapt thez material, but must give appropriate credit to the source, provide a link to the licence, and indicate if changes were made. |
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | sdg 3 - good health and well-being ,/dk/atira/pure/sustainabledevelopmentgoals/good_health_and_well_being |
| Faculty \ School: | Faculty of Science > School of Environmental Sciences |
| UEA Research Groups: | University of East Anglia Schools > Faculty of Science > Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research Faculty of Science > Research Centres > Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research Faculty of Science > Research Groups > Environmental Social Sciences Faculty of Science > Research Centres > Centre for Ecology, Evolution and Conservation |
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| Depositing User: | Pure Connector |
| Date Deposited: | 18 Oct 2016 16:00 |
| Last Modified: | 09 Nov 2024 00:42 |
| URI: | https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/60978 |
| DOI: | 10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2016.21.41.30368 |
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