Timeliness of nongovernmental versus governmental global outbreak communications

Emerg Infect Dis. 2012 Jul;18(7):1184-7. doi: 10.3201/eid1807.120249.

Abstract

To compare the timeliness of nongovernmental and governmental communications of infectious disease outbreaks and evaluate trends for each over time, we investigated the time elapsed from the beginning of an outbreak to public reporting of the event. We found that governmental sources improved the timeliness of public reporting of infectious disease outbreaks during the study period.

Publication types

  • Evaluation Study
  • Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural

MeSH terms

  • Communicable Diseases / diagnosis
  • Communicable Diseases / epidemiology*
  • Disease Notification* / methods
  • Disease Notification* / standards
  • Disease Outbreaks / statistics & numerical data*
  • Government*
  • Humans
  • Population Surveillance
  • Private Sector*
  • Time Factors