A hickenpox surveillance evaluation in Vachira Phuket hospital, Thailand, 2015

Abstract

Background: Background: In 2015, there was a chickenpox outbreak in pediatric ward and among hospital staff of in-patient department at Vachira Phuket Hospital. This outbreak adversely affects to the hospital service. We conducted the surveillance evaluation of chicken pox with aim to describe the qualitative and quantitative attributes for improving the surveillance system in the hospital.
Methods: We conducted cross-sectional study. Both quantitative and qualitative attributes of chickenpox surveillance system was evaluated. We reviewed medical records that had similar symptoms of the disease during 1st January – 31st December 2015. Case definition of chickenpox was relied by the national surveillance. We interviewed staff who were involved in the surveillance system.
Results: Total 881 medical records were reviewed and 423 records met the case definition. Only 300 cases out of 423 cases were reported to the surveillance system (sensitivity 70.92%) and 300 cases out of 305 reported cases met the definition (PVP 98.36%). The representative of the surveillance system was good. The accuracy of records was 100% and timeliness was 99.34%. The qualitative attributes showed that the system is not simple and lacks of acceptation among the hospital staff. On the other hand, flexibility stability and usefulness of the surveillance system are all good.
Conclusions and discussions: The quantitative attributes of the surveillance system at Vachira Phuket hospital was good and well function. On the other hand, the qualitative attributes have the problems in simplicity and acceptability. These made the chickenpox prevention ineffective which cause the chickenpox wide spreading in the hospital. Therefore, increasing awareness and important of reporting among the hospital staff will be crucial for prevention of spreading the chickenpox.