Probabilistic daily ILI syndromic surveillance with a spatio-temporal Bayesian hierarchical model.

BACKGROUND: For daily syndromic surveillance to be effective, an efficient and sensible algorithm would be expected to detect aberrations in influenza illness, and alert public health workers prior to any impending epidemic. This detection or alert surely contains uncertainty, and thus should be eva...

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Main Authors: Ta-Chien Chan, Chwan-Chuen King, Muh-Yong Yen, Po-Huang Chiang, Chao-Sheng Huang, Chuhsing K Hsiao
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2010-01-01
Series:PLoS ONE
Online Access:http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC2905374?pdf=render
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author Ta-Chien Chan
Chwan-Chuen King
Muh-Yong Yen
Po-Huang Chiang
Chao-Sheng Huang
Chuhsing K Hsiao
author_facet Ta-Chien Chan
Chwan-Chuen King
Muh-Yong Yen
Po-Huang Chiang
Chao-Sheng Huang
Chuhsing K Hsiao
author_sort Ta-Chien Chan
collection DOAJ
description BACKGROUND: For daily syndromic surveillance to be effective, an efficient and sensible algorithm would be expected to detect aberrations in influenza illness, and alert public health workers prior to any impending epidemic. This detection or alert surely contains uncertainty, and thus should be evaluated with a proper probabilistic measure. However, traditional monitoring mechanisms simply provide a binary alert, failing to adequately address this uncertainty. METHODS AND FINDINGS: Based on the Bayesian posterior probability of influenza-like illness (ILI) visits, the intensity of outbreak can be directly assessed. The numbers of daily emergency room ILI visits at five community hospitals in Taipei City during 2006-2007 were collected and fitted with a Bayesian hierarchical model containing meteorological factors such as temperature and vapor pressure, spatial interaction with conditional autoregressive structure, weekend and holiday effects, seasonality factors, and previous ILI visits. The proposed algorithm recommends an alert for action if the posterior probability is larger than 70%. External data from January to February of 2008 were retained for validation. The decision rule detects successfully the peak in the validation period. When comparing the posterior probability evaluation with the modified Cusum method, results show that the proposed method is able to detect the signals 1-2 days prior to the rise of ILI visits. CONCLUSIONS: This Bayesian hierarchical model not only constitutes a dynamic surveillance system but also constructs a stochastic evaluation of the need to call for alert. The monitoring mechanism provides earlier detection as well as a complementary tool for current surveillance programs.
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spelling doaj.art-28880b8220fd480ebd1b48686166959b2022-12-22T00:46:49ZengPublic Library of Science (PLoS)PLoS ONE1932-62032010-01-0157e1162610.1371/journal.pone.0011626Probabilistic daily ILI syndromic surveillance with a spatio-temporal Bayesian hierarchical model.Ta-Chien ChanChwan-Chuen KingMuh-Yong YenPo-Huang ChiangChao-Sheng HuangChuhsing K HsiaoBACKGROUND: For daily syndromic surveillance to be effective, an efficient and sensible algorithm would be expected to detect aberrations in influenza illness, and alert public health workers prior to any impending epidemic. This detection or alert surely contains uncertainty, and thus should be evaluated with a proper probabilistic measure. However, traditional monitoring mechanisms simply provide a binary alert, failing to adequately address this uncertainty. METHODS AND FINDINGS: Based on the Bayesian posterior probability of influenza-like illness (ILI) visits, the intensity of outbreak can be directly assessed. The numbers of daily emergency room ILI visits at five community hospitals in Taipei City during 2006-2007 were collected and fitted with a Bayesian hierarchical model containing meteorological factors such as temperature and vapor pressure, spatial interaction with conditional autoregressive structure, weekend and holiday effects, seasonality factors, and previous ILI visits. The proposed algorithm recommends an alert for action if the posterior probability is larger than 70%. External data from January to February of 2008 were retained for validation. The decision rule detects successfully the peak in the validation period. When comparing the posterior probability evaluation with the modified Cusum method, results show that the proposed method is able to detect the signals 1-2 days prior to the rise of ILI visits. CONCLUSIONS: This Bayesian hierarchical model not only constitutes a dynamic surveillance system but also constructs a stochastic evaluation of the need to call for alert. The monitoring mechanism provides earlier detection as well as a complementary tool for current surveillance programs.http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC2905374?pdf=render
spellingShingle Ta-Chien Chan
Chwan-Chuen King
Muh-Yong Yen
Po-Huang Chiang
Chao-Sheng Huang
Chuhsing K Hsiao
Probabilistic daily ILI syndromic surveillance with a spatio-temporal Bayesian hierarchical model.
PLoS ONE
title Probabilistic daily ILI syndromic surveillance with a spatio-temporal Bayesian hierarchical model.
title_full Probabilistic daily ILI syndromic surveillance with a spatio-temporal Bayesian hierarchical model.
title_fullStr Probabilistic daily ILI syndromic surveillance with a spatio-temporal Bayesian hierarchical model.
title_full_unstemmed Probabilistic daily ILI syndromic surveillance with a spatio-temporal Bayesian hierarchical model.
title_short Probabilistic daily ILI syndromic surveillance with a spatio-temporal Bayesian hierarchical model.
title_sort probabilistic daily ili syndromic surveillance with a spatio temporal bayesian hierarchical model
url http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC2905374?pdf=render
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