Influenza Surveillance in Our University Hospital(Papers for cerebrating the Forty Aniversary of the Department of Pediatrics, Tokyo Womenu27s Medical University Center East)

摘要

We implement influenza surveillance as part of infection control at our hospital. We have reviewed the outcome of this surveillance, implemented in a unique environment, as a university hospital reflects the overall occurrence trend. The number of influenza patients at our hospital was compared with the nationwide and Tokyo Metropolitan-wide occurrence trends for the past 4 consecutive influenza seasons i.e., 2002-2003, 2003-2004, 2004-2005 and 2005-2006 winter periods. When we count the number of patients on a daily basis, there are always distorted peaks over the weekends as our hospital accepts urgent visits. When counted on a weekly basis, this distortion is rectified. We see that the patient numbers in our hospital correspond to the activity level of influenza in the country as a whole and in Metropolitan Tokyo on a year-to-year comparison basis. We also observe the onset of influenza occurrence in our hospital one to two weeks earlier or later than in Metropolitan Tokyo. The number of the patients peaks out at our hospital zero to three weeks earlier than in Japan as a whole and in Metropolitan Tokyo. Despite the somewhat unique nature of a university hospital, the outcome of our influenza surveillance reflects well the overall occurrence trends and is considered to be useful for diagnosis and infection control. The cooperation of the individuals concerned is indispensable to continuing this surveillance, and therefore it is important to provide them with feedback about this outcome.