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Ondertitel:monitoring a COVID-19 outbreak using routine clinical data

After 5 weeks of lock-down during the COVID-19 pandemic in Belgium, the government considered reopening schools in the beginning of May 2020. Decisions were merely made, based on advices from epidemiologists and virologists. This study shows that by using routine data in primary care decisions can easily be supported and infections can be monitored in a valid way. In this manuscript we made a descriptive analysis of the respiratory and COVID-19 related illness burden in children aged 0 up to 19-years-old. Based on routine data from out-of-hours primary care services, which are available on a daily basis, we found only small differences between the number of patient contacts for respiratory complaints in 2019 compared to 2020. The largest differences are seen in adults aged 25 years and older, with a 18% increase in respiratory diagnoses. Also, in small children an increase is found but limited to 8.3% in the age group between 12 and 19-years-old. Over time, during the 5 weeks period of measurements, we found a striking decrease in patient contacts for small children and younger adults in 2020 which is not seen in 2019. This might be a direct result of lock-down measurements. We can conclude that routine data in primary care can be of great help in monitoring populations on a local level in the spreading of infectious diseases and enable decision makers to anticipate on new flare-ups on a daily basis.

Jaar van publicatie:2020

Trefwoorden:A3 Journal article

Toegankelijkheid:Open