Under-reporting of notifiable infectious disease hospitalizations in a health board region in Ireland: Room for improvement?

Epidemiology and Infection

Volumn 136, Issue 2, 2008, Pages 241-247

  Brabazon, Elaine D ^a   O'farrell, A ^a   Murray, C A ^a   Carton, M W ^b   Finnegan, P ^a  

^a HEALTH SERVICE EXECUTIVE   (Ireland)

^b CAVAN GENERAL HOSPITAL   (Ireland)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

ARTICLE; ENCEPHALITIS; HEALTH CARE QUALITY; HEALTH CARE SYSTEM; HEALTH SURVEY; HEPATITIS C VIRUS; HOSPITAL; HOSPITAL ADMISSION; HOSPITAL INFECTION; HOSPITAL INFORMATION SYSTEM; HOSPITAL PATIENT; HOSPITALIZATION; HUMAN; INCIDENCE; INFORMATION PROCESSING; IRELAND; MAJOR CLINICAL STUDY; MEDICAL INFORMATICS; MEDICAL RECORD; MONONUCLEOSIS; MORBIDITY; REGISTRATION; SCORING SYSTEM; STATISTICAL ANALYSIS; VIRUS MENINGITIS;

ADOLESCENT; ADULT; AGED; AGED, 80 AND OVER; CHILD; CHILD, PRESCHOOL; COMMUNICABLE DISEASES; DISEASE NOTIFICATION; HEALTH SERVICES RESEARCH; HOSPITALIZATION; HUMANS; INFANT; INFANT, NEWBORN; IRELAND; MIDDLE AGED; POPULATION SURVEILLANCE;

EID: 38049161399     PISSN: 09502688     EISSN: 14694409     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1017/S0950268807008230     Document Type: Article

References (32)

1. Infectious Disease Regulations, 1981. SI No. 390 of 1981 (amended by SI No. 268 of 1985, SI No. 288 of 1988, SI No. 384 of 1996, SI No. 151 of 2000 and SI No. 707 of 2003).
2. National Disease Surveillance Centre. Review of notifiable diseases and the process of notification. Dublin: National Disease Surveillance Centre, 2001.
3. Harvey, I. Infectious disease notification - a neglected legal requirement. Health Trends 1991; 23: 73-74.
4. Department of Health and Children. Activity in acute public hospitals in Ireland 1990-1999. Dublin: Economic and Social Research Institute, 2002.
5. Department of Public Health, North Eastern Health Board. Health status report of the people of the northeast, 2004.
6. Meyer CN, et al. Adult bacterial meningitis: Aetiology, penicillin susceptibility, risk factors, prognostic factors and guidelines for empirical antibiotic treatment. Clinical Microbiology and Infection 2004; 10: 709-717.
7. Harvey I, Kaul S, Peters TJ. Auditing and improving notification and chemoprophylaxis in bacterial meningitis. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health 1992; 46: 329-331.
8. Goldacre MJ, Miller DL. Completeness of statutory notification for acute bacterial meningitis. British Medical Journal 1976; 2: 501-503.
9. Davison KL, et al. Viral encephalitis in England, 1989-1998: what did we miss? Emerging Infectious Diseases 2003; 9: 234-240.
10. Flint JA, et al. From stool to statistics: Reporting of acute gastrointestinal illnesses in Canada. Canadian Journal of Public Health 2004; 95: 309-313.
11. Barrett P, Lau YK. Incompleteness of statutory notification of bacterial gastro-intestinal infection. Public Health 1996; 111 183-185.
12. Lerman Y, et al. How valid is the official data from the Health Department on reported morbidity in Israel? Hepatitis A as an example. Harefuah 1999; 136: 441-445.
13. Poulos RG, Ferson MJ. Enhanced surveillance of acute hepatitis B in south-eastern Sydney. Communicable Disease Intelligence 2004; 28: 392-395.
14. Hagan H, et al. Case-reporting of acute hepatitis B and C among injection drug users. Journal of Urban Health 2002; 79 579-585.
15. Abdool Karim SS, Abdool Karim Q. Under-reporting in hepatitis B notifications. South African Medical Journal 1991; 79: 242-244.
16. Strauss R, Fulop G, Pfeifer C. Hepatitis C in Austria 1993-2000: reporting bias distort HCV epidemiology in Austria. Eurosurveillance 2003; 8: 113-118.
17. Smith A, et al. Legionnaires' disease in Ireland - a cause for concern? Irish Medical Journal 2002; 95: 308-310.
18. Davidson RN, et al. Under-reporting of malaria, a notifiable disease, in Britain. Journal of Infection 1993; 26: 348-349.
19. Beard SM, Finn A. Do we need to boost pertussis immunization within the existing UK vaccination schedule? Journal of Public Health Medicine 2000; 22: 349-356.
20. Andrews R, Herceg A, Roberts C. Pertussis notifications in Australia, 1991 to 1997. Communicable Disease Intelligence 1997; 21: 145-148.
21. Jenkinson D. Whooping cough: What proportion of cases is notified in an epidemic? British Medical Journal (Clinical Research Edition) 1983; 287: 185-186.
22. Pillaye J, Clarke A. An evaluation of completeness of tuberculosis notification in the United Kingdom. BMC Public Health. 2003; 6 31.
23. van Loenhout-Rooyackers JH, et al. Pyrazinamide use as a method of estimating under-reporting of tuberculosis. International Journal of Tuberculosis and Lung Disease 2001; 5: 1156-1160.
24. Brabazon ED, et al. Trends in viral meningitis hospitalisations and notifications in the North Eastern Health Board (1997-2001): A cause for concern? Irish Medical Journal 2004; 97: 306-308.
25. Dinis J. Mandatory notification of communicable diseases: What physicians think. Acta Medica Portuguesa 2000; 13: 33-38.
26. Durrheim D, Thomas J. General practice awareness of notifiable infectious diseases. Public Health 1994; 108: 273-278.
27. Abdool Karim SS, Dilraj A. Reasons for under-reporting of notifiable conditions. South African Medical Journal 1996; 86 834-836.
28. Spedding RL, Jenkins MG, O'Reilly SA. Notification of infectious diseases by junior doctors in accident and emergency departments. Journal of Accident and Emergency Medicine 1998; 15: 102-104.
29. Collins G. Notification of infectious diseases (SHB). Infoscan 1997; 7(4).
30. Seneviratne SL, Gunatilake SB, de Silva HJ. Reporting notifiable diseases: Methods for improvement, attitudes and community outcome. Transactions of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene 1997; 91: 135-137.
31. Figueiras A, et al. Influence of physicians attitudes on under-notifying infectious diseases: A longitudinal study. Public Health 2004; 118: 521-526.
32. National Disease Surveillance Centre. Annual Report 2003: Computerised Infectious Disease Reporting System, p. 114.