Performance of communicable disease automatic warning system in Diaobingshan, Liaoning,2008-2013

Objective To analyze the performance of the automatic early warning system of communicable disease in Diaobingshan, Liaoning province and provide evidences for the improvement of the system. Methods The statistic analysis was conducted on the data generated by the automatic early warning system of communicable disease in Diaobingshan from 21 April,2008 to 31 December,2013. Results A total of 185 signals were generated by the system, which involved 10 infectious diseases. Up to 86.49% of the signals were responded within 24 hours. The median time of response was within 0.83 h. The system successfully emitted 172 mobile phone signals (92.97%) and 18 were considered as suspected signals after preliminary verification. Six disease epidemics were confirmed by field investigation, i.e. 5 mumps epidemics and 1 rubella epidemic. The positive rate of signals was 3.24% (6/185). Conclusion This system can give early warning of communicable disease epidemic automatically, but the positive rate of signals and related response should be improved, it is also necessary to strengthen the technical service for the system, the staff training and the management of network direct reporting of communicable dsieases.