Evidence map›Paper›PMID 36524319›Full record

ArticleInfection control and hospital epidemiology2023

A new automated national register-based surveillance system for outbreaks in long-term care facilities in Norway detected three times more severe acute respiratory coronavirus virus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) clusters than traditional methods.

Kirsten Gravningen, Petter Nymark, Torgeir B Wyller, Oliver Kacelnik

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Article in Infection control and hospital epidemiology, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.

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1citing papers in PubMed
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1 · What the graph read from it

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3 · Its place in the literature

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1 citing paper in PubMed.

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4 · The record

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5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

4 authors.

Kirsten GravningenDepartment of Infection Prevention and Preparedness, Norwegian Institute of Public Health (NIPH), Oslo, Norway.ORCID 0000-0002-8194-3208
Petter NymarkDepartment of Infection Prevention and Preparedness, Norwegian Institute of Public Health (NIPH), Oslo, Norway.ORCID 0000-0002-7556-6127
Torgeir B WyllerInstitute of Clinical Medicine, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway.ORCID 0000-0002-0330-9471
Oliver KacelnikDepartment of Infection Prevention and Preparedness, Norwegian Institute of Public Health (NIPH), Oslo, Norway.ORCID 0000-0001-5903-932X

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

objectiveTo develop and test a new automated surveillance system that can detect, define and characterize infection clusters, including coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), in long-term care facilities (LTCFs) in Norway by combining existing national register data.

backgroundThe numerous outbreaks in LTCFs during the COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the need for accurate and timely outbreak surveillance. As traditional methods were inadequate, we used severe acute respiratory coronavirus virus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) as a model to test automated surveillance.

methodsWe conducted a nationwide study using data from the Norwegian preparedness register (Beredt C19) and defined the study population as an open cohort from January 2020 to December 2021. We analyzed clusters (≥3 individuals with positive SARS-CoV-2 test ≤14 days) by 4-month periods including cluster size, duration and composition, and residents' mortality associated with clusters.

resultsThe study population included 173,907 individuals; 78% employees and 22% residents. Clusters were detected in 427 (43%) of 993 LTCFs. The median cluster size was 4-8 individuals (maximum, 50) by 4-month periods, with a median duration of 9-17 days. Employees represented 60%-82% of cases in clusters and were index cases in 60%-90%. In the last 4-month period of 2020, we detected 107 clusters (915 cases) versus 428 clusters (2,998 cases) in the last period of 2021. The 14-day all-cause mortality rate was higher in resident cases from the clusters. Varying the cluster definitions changed the number of clusters.

conclusionAutomated national surveillance for SARS-CoV-2 clusters in LTCFs is possible based on existing data sources and provides near real-time detailed information on size, duration, and composition of clusters. Thus, this system can assist in early outbreak detection and improve surveillance.

Indexed as

COVID-19Disease OutbreaksHumansLong-Term CareNorwayPandemicsSARS-CoV-2

Identifiers

PMID36524319
PMCPMC10507514

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.