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. 1993 Sep;4(5):257-62.
doi: 10.1155/1993/562460.

Improving surveillance of the impact of influenza and its prevention in Canada

D S Fedson  1
Affiliations

Improving surveillance of the impact of influenza and its prevention in Canada

D S Fedson. Can J Infect Dis. 1993 Sep.

Abstract
in English, French

The organization of Canada's provincial health care systems and the administrative databases that sustain them provide physicians, epidemiologists and public health officials with unique opportunities to improve surveillance of influenza and its prevention. These databases can be used to measure the impact of influenza on excess mortality, hospitalization and costs to the health care system. They can also be used to study the epidemiology of influenza vaccination practices. Studies using the administrative database for the province of Manitoba have established the epidemiological rationale for hospital-based vaccination and have evaluated the clinical effectiveness of influenza vaccination. As pneumococcal vaccination becomes widespread in Canada, provincial databases should also prove useful in assessing the impact of the pneumococcal infections and their prevention with pneumococcal vaccine.

L’organisation des systèmes de soins de santé provinciaux au Canada et les bases de données administratives qui les soutiennent procurent aux médecins, aux épidémiologistes et aux autorités sanitaires la possibilité d’améliorer la surveillance épidémiologique de l’influenza et sa prévention. Ces bases de données peuvent être utilisées pour mesurer l’impact de l’influenza sur les taux de mortalité, des hospitalisations et de coûts supportés par les systèmes de soins de santé. Elles peuvent également être utilisées pour l’analyse épidémiologique des mesures de vaccination contre l’influenza. Les études qui utilisent les bases de données administratives de la province du Manitoba ont servi à justifier, au plan épidémiologique, la vaccination dans les hôpitaux et ont mesuré l’efficacité clinique de la vaccination contre l’influenza. À mesure que la vaccination pneumococcique se répand au Canada, les bases de données provinciales devraient également se révéler utiles pour évaluer les répercussions de l’infection à pneumocoque et de sa prévention au moyen d’un vaccin approprié.

Keywords: Administrative databases; Influenza; Influenza vaccination; Surveillance.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Influenza vaccine distribution in Canada, 1980–92. For 1980 and 1981, data on vaccine purchases by provincial health departments were unavailable. The figure shows only total doses distributed for these two years
Figure 2
Figure 2
Weekly hospital admissions for pneumonia and influenza (ICD-9-CM 480-487; first-listed discharge diagnosis) in Manitoba during the period 1987–88 to 1990–91
Figure 3
Figure 3
Influenza vaccine distribution, provincial vaccine purchases and physician claims for influenza vaccination in Manitoba, 1981–91
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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