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A 5-year comparison of performance of sentinel and mandatory notification surveillance systems for measles in Switzerland

  • Infectious Diseases
  • Published:
European Journal of Epidemiology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

A sensitive, specific and timely surveillance is necessary to monitor progress towards measles elimination. We evaluated the performance of sentinel and mandatory-based surveillance systems for measles in Switzerland during a 5-year period by comparing 145 sentinel and 740 mandatory notified cases. The higher proportion of physicians who reported at least one case per year in the sentinel system suggests underreporting in the recently introduced mandatory surveillance for measles. Accordingly, the latter reported 2–36-fold lower estimates for incidence rates than the sentinel surveillance. However, these estimates were only 0.6–12-fold lower when we considered confirmed cases alone, which indicates a higher specificity of the mandatory surveillance system. In contrast, the sentinel network, which covers 3.5% of all outpatient consultations, detected only weakly and late a major national measles epidemic in 2003 and completely missed 2 of 10 cantonal outbreaks. Despite its better timeliness and greater sensitivity in case detection, the sentinel system, in the current situation of low incidence, is insufficient to perform measles control and to monitor progress towards elimination.

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Abbreviations

CI:

Confidence interval

FMH:

Swiss Medical Association

FOPH:

Federal Office of Public Health

MNS:

Mandatory notification system

OR:

Odds ratio

SSSN:

Swiss Sentinel Surveillance Network

WHO:

World Health Organization

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Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully acknowledge the Swiss physicians and laboratories participating in the sentinel and the mandatory notification systems for measles. Thanks are also due to the Federal Office of Statistics and santésuisse for providing population and medical consultations data respectively. The authors warmly acknowledge Dr. Marcel Zwahlen of the Department of Social and Preventive Medicine, University of Bern, as well as Dr. Hanspeter Zimmermann of the Federal Office of Public Health for critically reviewing the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Communicable Diseases, Federal Office of Public Health, Schwarztorstrasse 96, 3003, Bern, Switzerland

    Jean-Luc Richard, Beatriz Vidondo & Mirjam Mäusezahl

  2. Department of Social and Preventive Medicine, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland

    Beatriz Vidondo

Authors
  1. Jean-Luc Richard
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  2. Beatriz Vidondo
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  3. Mirjam Mäusezahl
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Correspondence to Jean-Luc Richard.

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Richard, JL., Vidondo, B. & Mäusezahl, M. A 5-year comparison of performance of sentinel and mandatory notification surveillance systems for measles in Switzerland. Eur J Epidemiol 23, 55–65 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10654-007-9187-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10654-007-9187-1

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