Connecticut Department of Public Health, Hartford, Connecticut 06134-0308, USA.
Emerg Infect Dis. 2012 Feb;18(2):242-7. doi: 10.3201/eid1802.101219.
To determine the effect of changing public health surveillance methods on the reported epidemiology of Lyme disease, we analyzed Connecticut data for 1996-2007. Data were stratified by 4 surveillance methods and compared. A total of 87,174 reports were received that included 79,896 potential cases. Variations based on surveillance methods were seen. Cases reported through physician-based surveillance were significantly more likely to be classified as confirmed; such case-patients were significantly more likely to have symptoms of erythema migrans only and to have illness onset during summer months. Case-patients reported through laboratory-based surveillance were significantly more likely to have late manifestations only and to be older. Use of multiple surveillance methods provided a more complete clinical and demographic description of cases but lacked efficiency. When interpreting data, changes in surveillance method must be considered.
为了确定改变公共卫生监测方法对莱姆病报告流行病学的影响，我们分析了 1996 年至 2007 年康涅狄格州的数据。数据按 4 种监测方法分层并进行比较。共收到 87174 份报告，包括 79896 例潜在病例。基于监测方法的差异是明显的。通过基于医生的监测报告的病例更有可能被归类为确诊病例；这些患者更有可能仅出现游走性红斑症状，且发病时间在夏季。通过实验室监测报告的病例更有可能仅出现晚期表现，且年龄更大。使用多种监测方法可以更完整地描述病例的临床和人口统计学特征，但效率较低。在解释数据时，必须考虑监测方法的变化。
