Published on in Vol 5, No 1 (2013):

A Bayesian Approach to Characterize Hong Kong Influenza Surveillance Systems

A Bayesian Approach to Characterize Hong Kong Influenza Surveillance Systems

A Bayesian Approach to Characterize Hong Kong Influenza Surveillance Systems

Authors of this article:

Ying Zhang1 ;   Ali Arab1 ;   Michael A. Stoto1
The full text of this article is available as a PDF download by clicking here.

To develop a statistical tool for characterizing multiple influenza surveillance data for situational awareness, we used Bayesian statistical model incorporating factors such as disease transmission, behavior patterns in healthcare seeking and provision, biases and errors embedded in the reporting process, with the observed data from Hong Kong. The patterns in the ratios of paired data streams help to characterize influenza surveillance systems. To better interpret influenza surveillance data, behavior data related to healthcare resources utilization need to be collected in real-time.