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American Journal of Public Health logoLink to American Journal of Public Health
. 1991 Oct;81(10):1313–1315. doi: 10.2105/ajph.81.10.1313

Timeliness of national reporting of communicable diseases: the experience of the National Electronic Telecommunications System for Surveillance.

G Birkhead 1, T L Chorba 1, S Root 1, D N Klaucke 1, N J Gibbs 1
PMCID: PMC1405326  PMID: 1928531

Abstract

The timeliness of reporting four nationally notifiable diseases was examined using data reported via the National Electronic Telecommunications System for Surveillance. Timeliness of reporting varied by disease (bacterial meningitis: median 20 days; salmonellosis: median 22 days; shigellosis: median 23 days; and hepatitis A: median 33 days) and by state. These findings indicate a need to standardize surveillance definitions and to account for reporting differences between states in interpreting regional disease trends or detecting multistate disease outbreaks.

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Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

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