The experience of West Nile virus integrated surveillance system in the Emilia-Romagna region: five years of implementation, Italy, 2009 to 2013
Eurosurveillance·
- DOI
- 10.2807/1560-7917.es2014.19.44.20953
- PMID
- 25394257
- PMCID
- —
- OpenAlex
- W2323156035
- Study type
- Journal article
- Publisher
- European Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (ECDC)
- Article type
- journal-article
- Integrity
- current
Why this research matters now
The integrated surveillance system reduced transmission risk through blood, tissue, and organ donation by enabling earlier detection and more targeted screening strategies. It also supported evidence-based adoption of preventative public health measures while reducing overall costs.
Structured evidence summary
Research question
This study evaluates the performance and cost-effectiveness of an integrated West Nile virus surveillance system combining environmental and human monitoring in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy over five years.
Study design
The study describes an integrated surveillance system implemented and progressively improved from 2009 to 2013, incorporating environmental monitoring of mosquitoes and birds alongside human case surveillance. A cost comparison was conducted between scenarios with and without environmental surveillance.
Population and setting
The surveillance system operated in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy and monitored West Nile neuroinvasive disease cases, mosquito vectors, and bird populations during the five-year period from 2009 to 2013.
Main findings
Environmental surveillance detected West Nile virus circulation 3–4 weeks before human neuroinvasive disease cases appeared. Strong correlations were observed between vector index values and human case counts at the province level. The integrated system demonstrated high sensitivity for detecting enzootic circulation and accurately indicated spatial risk distribution. Including environmental surveillance reduced total costs from EUR 2.560 million to EUR 2.093 million by enabling targeted blood unit testing and improving detection efficiency of infected blood units.
Public-health relevance
The integrated surveillance system reduced transmission risk through blood, tissue, and organ donation by enabling earlier detection and more targeted screening strategies. It also supported evidence-based adoption of preventative public health measures while reducing overall costs.
Important limitations
This summary is limited to the supplied single-article abstract and metadata. The original paper is required for decision-grade interpretation of surveillance system validation, generalizability to other settings, and detailed methodological assessment.
GIDS interpretation
This article is discoverable through classifier links for West Nile virus, Italy, climate and environment, surveillance, and transmission dynamics. It describes a regional surveillance system implementation rather than reporting on a specific outbreak or epidemic event.
Related GIDS surveillance
Literature context does not validate, explain, or change a surveillance signal. Exact and contextual relationships are shown separately.
Evidence relationships
This article has 8 auditable classifier relationships to diseases, places, topics, and study design.