title: Sentinel Surveillance: an option for surveillance of infectious intestinal disease.
abstract: Sentinel surveillance systems offer advantages over passive surveillance which is known to have limitations due to incomplete reporting. Sentinel surveillance gathering data from selected sources was piloted as an option for surveillance of infectious intestinal disease (IID) in Malta. Between October 2004 and May 2005, 22 general practitioners (GPs) voluntarily participated in the study and reported on the number of IID cases (by age and sex) and all primary care encounters in their practice. The GPs' reporting activity lasted for 35 weeks, covering a total of 55,425 primary care encounters, of which 1.95% concerned IID. For every case reported via the routine passive notification system, seven cases would be picked up by this enhanced sentinel surveillance.
authors.affiliation: Disease Surveillance Unit, Department of Public Health, Malta. charmaine.gauci@gov.mt
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Gauci
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Melillo Fenech
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Gilles
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: O'Brien
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Mamo
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Stabile
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Calleja
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Ruggeri
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Cuschieri
mesh_terms: D003141:Communicable Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology*; D018563:Disease Notification / Q000379:methods* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D004196:Disease Outbreaks / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D007410:Intestinal Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology*; D008319:Malta / Q000453:epidemiology; D011159:Population Surveillance / Q000379:methods; D018570:Risk Assessment / Q000379:methods; D012307:Risk Factors; D018571:Sentinel Surveillance