Analysis on automatic early-warning information of communicable disease in Shenzhen city, 2008-2011

ObjectiveTo examine the performance of communicable disease early-warning information system of Shenzhen city from 2008 to 2011,and to explore the operation mode of communicable disease early-warning for improving the quality of automatic early-warning information. MethodsDescriptive epidemiological method was used to analyze the information on automatic early-warning of communicalble disease in Shenzhen during the period from 2008 to 2011. ResultsA total of 16 226 warning messages were released by the automatic early-warning information system of Shenzhen from 2008 to 2011,and 25 of them were identified as outbreaks of communicable disease by field investigation.The warning messages covered 28 communicable diseases,and the top five diseases were other infectious diarrhea,mumps,viral hepatitis C,dysentery,and measles.The warning messages were mainly released in the period of May to June and September.The sensitivity of automatic early-warning system was 13.09%,and the positive predictive value (PPV) was 0.15%. ConclusionThe automatic communicable disease early-warning information system is stable and is effective for the control of communicable diseases in Shenzhen city,but the warning efficiency of outbreak still needs to be improved in the future.