Volume 9, Number 9—September 2003
Perspective
Automated, Laboratory-based System Using the Internet for Disease Outbreak Detection, the Netherlands
Figure 3

Figure 3. Graph showing sharp increase of weekly totals (week of sampling) of syphilis diagnoses (black line) exceeding the 99% threshold (red line). Arrow (week 9) marks when submitted laboratory reports resulted in signal generation and subsequent investigation.
1Example 1: A surveillance diagnosis for a case of respiratory syncytial virus infection is a positive culture or positive polymerase chain reaction (PCR) or positive direct immunofluorescence or positive enzyme immunoassay, with all positive tests on the same case-patient within a 6-week period reported as one surveillance diagnosis. Example 2: A surveillance diagnosis for a case of invasive Haemophilus influenza infection is a positive culture from a normally sterile site, with all positive results from the same case in 3 months considered one surveillance diagnosis.