title: SurvNet electronic surveillance system for infectious disease outbreaks, Germany.
abstract: In 2001, the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) implemented a new electronic surveillance system (SurvNet) for infectious disease outbreaks in Germany. SurvNet has captured 30,578 outbreak reports in 2001-2005. The size of the outbreaks ranged from 2 to 527 cases. For outbreaks reported in 2002-2005, the median duration from notification of the first case to the local health department until receipt of the outbreak report at RKI was 7 days. Median outbreak duration ranged from 1 day (caused by Campylobacter) up to 73 days (caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis). The most common settings among the 10,008 entries for 9,946 outbreaks in 2004 and 2005 were households (5,262; 53%), nursing homes (1,218; 12%), and hospitals (1,248; 12%). SurvNet may be a useful tool for other outbreak surveillance systems because it minimizes the workload of local health departments and captures outbreaks even when causative pathogens have not yet been identified.
authors.affiliation: Department of Infectious Disease Epidemiology, Robert Koch Institute, Seestrasse 10, 13353 Berlin, Germany. krauseg@rki.de
authors.forename: Gérard
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Krause
authors.forename: Doris
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Altmann
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Faensen
authors.forename: Klaudia
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Porten
authors.forename: Justus
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Benzler
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Pfoch
authors.forename: Andrea
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ammon
authors.forename: Michael H
authors.initials: MH
authors.lastname: Kramer
authors.forename: Hermann
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Claus
mesh_terms: D003628:Database Management Systems; D018563:Disease Notification / Q000379:methods*; D004196:Disease Outbreaks; D005858:Germany / Q000453:epidemiology; D006801:Humans; D020407:Internet; D011159:Population Surveillance / Q000379:methods*; D040442:Public Health Informatics; D018571:Sentinel Surveillance