Hepatitis A surveillance in England--how many cases are not reported and does it really matter?
Matin, N;
Grant, A;
Granerod, J;
Crowcroft, N;
(2006)
Hepatitis A surveillance in England--how many cases are not reported and does it really matter?
Epidemiology and infection, 134 (6).
pp. 1299-1302.
ISSN 0950-2688
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0950268806006194
Permanent Identifier
Use this Digital Object Identifier when citing or linking to this resource.
Underreporting of hepatitis A infection in England may be high and a number of outbreaks have occurred undetected by routine surveillance. We evaluated surveillance of hepatitis A cases by employing capture-recapture analysis on data from two distinct outbreaks of hepatitis A. The overall reporting of cases of hepatitis A was 81.7% (95% CI 55.3-95) in the first outbreak in North East England and reporting through Lab Base was 65.7% (95% CI 42.8-76.4). In the second outbreak in the East Midlands the overall reporting of hepatitis A cases was 27.8% (95% CI 19-38.7) and through Lab Base 16.6% (95% CI 11.4-23.1). Underreporting of hepatitis A cases is high. Public health interventions exist to prevent and control outbreaks of hepatitis A. The lack of reliable data on incidence and prevalence hampers effective public health management of this disease.