title: Timeliness of case reporting in the Swedish statutory surveillance of communicable diseases 1998--2002.
abstract: To prepare for a new communicable disease act in Sweden, we performed an in-depth analysis of the performance of the present notification system (1998--2002). Four diseases were selected for analysis (meningococcal infection, salmonellosis, infection with penicillin-resistant pneumococci and tularaemia). Each step in the double notification flow (clinical and laboratory notifications) was studied and paper-based and electronic notifications compared. More than 15 possible single dates in the notification flows were analysed for 27,000 cases. The shortest notification flows (from date of sample collection to when the first notification was received at SMI--clinical or laboratory notification) were seen for meningococcal infections and salmonellosis (median 7 d) and the longest for tularaemia (11 d). Laboratory notifications were faster than clinical notifications, and electronic reporting 1.5-1.7 times faster than paper notifications. Further gains should be expected from the new electronic reporting system (SmiNet2), which will allow also clinical reporting electronically over the internet.
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology, Swedish Institute for Infectious Disease Control (SMI), Stockholm, Sweden.
authors.forename: Anna
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Jansson
authors.forename: Malin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Arneborn
authors.forename: Katarina
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Skärlund
authors.forename: Karl
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Ekdahl
mesh_terms: D003141:Communicable Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology*; D018563:Disease Notification / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D011159:Population Surveillance / Q000379:methods*; D013548:Sweden / Q000453:epidemiology; D013997:Time Factors