Are we missing respiratory viral infections in infants and children? Comparison of a hospital-based quality management system with standard of care

摘要

Objectives: Hospital-based surveillance of influenza and acute respiratory infections relies on International Classification of Diseases (ICD) codes and hospital laboratory reports (Standard-of-Care). It is unclear how many cases are missed with either method, i.e. remain undiagnosed/coded as influenza and other respiratory virus infections. Various influenza-like illness (ILI) definitions co-exist with little guidance on how to use them. We compared the diagnostic accuracy of standard surveillance methods with a prospective quality management (QM) programme at a Berlin children's hospital with the Robert Koch Institute.