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. 2022 Mar;17(2):603-608.
doi: 10.1007/s11739-021-02818-5. Epub 2021 Jul 29.

Surveillance of COVID-19 using a keyword search for symptoms in reports from emergency medical communication centers in Gironde, France: a 15 year retrospective cross-sectional study

Cédric Gil-Jardiné  1   2 , Gabrielle Chenais  1   2 , Catherine Pradeau  1   2 , Eric Tentillier  2 , Phillipe Revel  1   2 , Xavier Combes  1   2 , Michel Galinski  1   2 , Eric Tellier  1   2 , Emmanuel Lagarde  3
Affiliations

Surveillance of COVID-19 using a keyword search for symptoms in reports from emergency medical communication centers in Gironde, France: a 15 year retrospective cross-sectional study

Cédric Gil-Jardiné et al. Intern Emerg Med. 2022 Mar.

Erratum in

Abstract

During periods such as the COVID-19 crisis, there is a need for responsive public health surveillance indicators related to the epidemic. To determine the performance of keyword-search algorithm in call reports to emergency medical communication centers (EMCC) to describe trends in symptoms during the COVID-19 crisis. We retrospectively retrieved all free text call reports from the EMCC of the Gironde department (SAMU 33), France, between 2005 and 2020 and classified them with a simple keyword-based algorithm to identify symptoms relevant to COVID-19. A validation was performed using a sample of manually coded call reports. The six selected symptoms were fever, cough, muscle soreness, dyspnea, ageusia and anosmia. We retrieved 38,08,243 call reports from January 2005 to October 2020. A total of 8539 reports were manually coded for validation and Cohen's kappa statistics ranged from 75 (keyword anosmia) to 59% (keyword dyspnea). There was an unprecedented peak in the number of daily calls mentioning fever, cough, muscle soreness, anosmia, ageusia, and dyspnea during the COVID-19 epidemic, compared to the past 15 years. Calls mentioning cough, fever and muscle soreness began to increase from February 21, 2020. The number of daily calls reporting cough reached 208 on March 3, 2020, a level higher than any in the previous 15 years, and peaked on March 15, 2020, 2 days before lockdown. Calls referring to dyspnea, anosmia and ageusia peaked 12 days later and were concomitant with the daily number of emergency room admissions. Trends in symptoms cited in calls to EMCC during the COVID-19 crisis provide insights into the natural history of COVID-19. The content of calls to EMCC is an efficient epidemiological surveillance data source and should be integrated into the national surveillance system.

Keywords: COVID-19; Emergency medical communication centers; Keywords; Symptoms.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Trends in symptoms from selected keyword searches from 2005 to 2020
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Trends in symptoms from selected keyword search in 2020
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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