The Violence and Accidents Survey Conducted in Sentinel Emergency Departments (VIVA Survey) is the sentinel surveillance component of the Violence and Accidents Surveillance System (VIVA). It was conducted for the first time in 2006 and again in 2007, 2009, 2011 and 2014. The sample is comprised of victims of accidents and violence treated in Emergency Departments linked to the Brazilian Nation...

The Authors Reply: Wu and Zhou suggest that some portion of the increase in reported syphilis cases in China may be an artifact of a one-time change in the reporting system in 2004 — an important concern. However, a systematic review of Chinese and English peer-reviewed publications about syphilis trends among both high-risk groups and pregnant women in China suggests that syphilis was spreadin...

BACKGROUND Evidence based resource allocation and decentralized planning of an effective HIV/AIDS response requires reliable information on levels and trends of HIV at national and sub-national geographic levels. HIV sentinel surveillance data from antenatal clinics (HSS-ANC) has been an important data source to assess the HIV/AIDS epidemic in India, but has a number of limitations. We assess t...

Monitoring of community influenza through sentinel practice networks is essential to track the onset and progress of epidemics. In 1999, the Influenza Pandemic Planning Committee of the Communicable Diseases Network Australia New Zealand (CDNANZ) recommended that a national surveillance system be established comprising both community-based and institutional surveillance. In 2001, however, influ...

Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is considered the most common pathogen causing severe lower respiratory tract infections among infants and young children. We describe the seasonality and geographical spread of RSV infection in 15 countries of the European Union and European Economic Area. We performed a retrospective descriptive study of weekly laboratory-confirmed RSV detections between week...

Adequate monitoring of dengue activity can be achieved using a combination of mosquito vector surveillance, fever surveillance, sentinel clinicians and laboratory screening. An apparent increase in fever cases or clinically suspected DF should prompt a careful clinical and laboratory investigation. If an outbreak of dengue is confirmed, health authorities will need to implement emergency commun...

Surveillance is critical for both early detection and a timely public health response to infectious diseases. Electronic information systems have been widely adopted by pharmacies in Japan. The aim of this study is to evaluate the feasibility of using prescription data for influenza surveillance in Japan to facilitate the development of a daily reporting system. This is a retrospective study us...

Antiretroviral treatment (ART) initiation in HIV-infected pregnant women in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) remains inadequate, and there is a severe shortage of professional healthcare workers in the region. The effectiveness of community support programmes for HIV-infected pregnant women and their infants in SSA is unclear. This study compared initiation of maternal antiretrovirals and infant outcom...

BACKGROUND Oseltamivir resistance in A(H1N1)pdm09 influenza is rare, particularly in untreated community cases. Sustained community transmission has not previously been reported. METHODS Influenza specimens from the Asia-Pacific region were collected through sentinel surveillance, hospital, and general practitioner networks. Clinical and epidemiological information was collected on patients i...

Game parks in Tanzania have long been considered to be at low risk for African trypanosomiasis; however, nine cases of the disease associated with these parks were recently reported. The outbreak was detected through TropNetEurop, a sentinel surveillance network of clinical sites throughout Europe.