B08006: Ascertainment and enhancement of gastrointestinal infection surveillance and statistics (AEGISS)
Wednesday 25 June 2003
This research project aims to develop a food poisoning surveillance system with enhanced sensitivity and speed to provide more opportunities for intervention and prevention in the local population.
Background
Gastrointestinal disease surveillance is currently principally pathogen-specific based on isolations from routinely faecal samples submitted by Primary Care. The Infectious Intestinal Disease study reported that for every 136 cases in the community, one is reported to national surveillance. This loss of epidemiological information limits the ability to detect outbreaks within local communities and reduces the opportunities for intervention. Therefore, surveillance based on pathogen isolations is highly specific but lacks sensitivity and speed. The aim of this project is to develop a surveillance system with enhanced sensitivity and speed to provide more opportunities for intervention and prevention in the local population.
Research Approach
Project AEGISS records a minimum dataset on all cases that present to Primary Care with acute onset of gastroenteric symptoms at first presentation, irrespective of the clinical management and faecal sampling. Postcode and date of onset are used for spatio-temporal statistical analysis to identify clustered cases. Specificity is added to the analysis by correlation of reported risk factor exposure and the results of routinely submitted faecal samples.
Results and findings
This project has developed a method for early detection of clusters of food and waterborne gastrointestinal disease within the community. If implemented, it could help to identify foodborne disease outbreaks more rapidly. In principle, this type of surveillance could also be applied to other types of public health needs.
Dissemination information
The final report is available from the FSA Library and Information centre. To obtain a copy, please contact the Enquiry Desk, Dr Elsie Widdowson Library and Information Services, Food Standards Agency (tel: 020 7276 8181/8182 or email: library&info@foodstandards.gsi.gov.uk).
Brix, A. and Diggle, P.J. (2001). Spatio-temporal prediction for log-Gaussian Cox processes. Journal of the Royal Statistical Society B 63, 823-41.
Diggle, P., Knorr-Held, L., Rowlingson, B., Su, T., Hawtin, P. and Bryant, T. (2003). On-line monitoring of public health surveillance data. In:Monitoring the Health of Populations: Statistical Principles and Methods for Public Health Surveillance, ed R. Brookmeyer and D.F. Stroup, 233-66. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Diggle, P.J. (2004). Spatial statistics in the biomedical sciences: future directions. In: GIS and Spatial Analysis in Veterinary Epidemiology, ed P A Durr and A G Gatrell, 97-118. Wallingford: CABI.
Contact: For any enquiries concerning this research project, please contact the relevant programme contact or email science@foodstandards.gsi.gov.uk