Time-place clustering of outpatients in fieber illness clinic

Objective To understand the time and place distribution of fieber illness clinic visits and provide evidence for the early warning of respiratory infectious disease. Methods Medical records of the patients visiting fieber illness clinics from 00:00 April 1, 2009 to 24:00 March 31, 2010 were collected through a syndrome surveillance system in a grade 3 general hospital in Chaoyang district in Beijing, and the time-place scan statistic analysis was conducted with retrospective time place permutation scan statistic method. Influenza-like cases, influenza cases and cases of fever with unknown origin were analyzed respectively. Results The analysis of 50% of study period found the clustering of outpatients visiting fieber illness clinic, ILI cases, influenza cases and the cases with unknown origin, the difference had statistical significance. The clustering were mainly in the central area of Chaoyang district. The clustering of ILI cases and influenza cases were close to each other, the distance between the central points of 2 clustering was 0.92 km and 2 clustering were overlapped mostly. Conclusion Time-place clustering analysis of fieber illness clinic visits can accurately find the significant clustering of respiratory disease patients, which is important for the early warning of the diseases. Syndrome surveillance in fieber illness clinic visits is valuable for the prevention and control of respiratory infectious disease.