Awini Elizabeth A, Bonney Joseph H K, Frimpong Joseph A, Ampofo William K, Koram Kwadwo A
School of Public Health, College of Health Sciences, University of Ghana, Legon.
Department of Virology, Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research, College of Health Sciences, University of Ghana, Legon.
Ghana Med J. 2017 Sep;51(3):115-119. doi: 10.4314/gmj.v51i3.4.
Complete and accurate information on disease occurrence is crucial for effective public health response to disease outbreaks. In response to the 2014 Ebola epidemic in West Africa, Ghana intensified surveillance for the disease across the country. However, the case definition provided by the Ministry of Health was not uniformly applied at all reporting health facilities.
This paper analyses the accompanying Case Record Forms (CRFs) submitted to Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research to determine its completeness and appropriateness for instituting an effective response to the epidemic.
We determined the proportions of completeness in reporting for all criteria provided by the MOH for the clinical diagnosis of Ebola. New indicators were generated to measure the completeness of each variable. Tables and graphs of completeness of indicators were produced and presented.
Of the 156 samples, 69% were from males. Approximately 4.5% had no record for age. The date of specimen collection was filled for 96%; 34.6% (54) did not have date of onset of symptoms. In 37.8% (59) of cases, location was blank. In 12% of cases, no symptoms were recorded and about 30% had no record of fever. Travel history, especially to affected areas, was missing for 40.4%.
Gaps on CRFs can significantly reduce the utility of results of laboratory analysis for outbreak control. Although all the samples analysed were negative for Ebola Virus, the high proportion of missing data on the forms should be a source of concern. We recommend that frontline health staff be trained on the importance of capturing all information required on the form.
The funding for the analysis of suspected samples were provided partially by Ghana Health Servce and research funding from Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research.
完整准确的疾病发生信息对于有效应对疾病爆发的公共卫生措施至关重要。为应对2014年西非埃博拉疫情，加纳在全国范围内加强了对该疾病的监测。然而，卫生部提供的病例定义在所有报告的医疗机构中并未得到统一应用。
本文分析提交给诺库奇纪念医学研究所的随附病例记录表（CRF），以确定其完整性和对于有效应对疫情的适用性。
我们确定了卫生部提供的埃博拉临床诊断所有标准报告的完整性比例。生成了新的指标来衡量每个变量的完整性。制作并展示了指标完整性的表格和图表。
在156个样本中，69%来自男性。约4.5%没有年龄记录。96%填写了标本采集日期；34.6%（54个）没有症状出现日期。在37.8%（59个）的病例中，地点为空白。在12%的病例中，未记录症状，约30%没有发热记录。40.4%的病例缺少旅行史，尤其是前往受影响地区的旅行史。
病例记录表上的空白会显著降低实验室分析结果对疫情控制的效用。尽管所有分析样本的埃博拉病毒检测均为阴性，但表格上高比例的缺失数据应引起关注。我们建议对一线卫生工作人员进行培训，使其了解填写表格所需所有信息的重要性。
疑似样本分析的资金部分由加纳卫生服务局提供，以及诺库奇纪念医学研究所的研究资金。
