Syndromic Surveillance of Respiratory Pathogens using Routine ED Data in England

We used an ED syndromic surveillance system to understand the factors driving respiratory ED attendances in England and how these can be characterised by the syndromic indicators available. Respiratory indicators were observed to peak at different points during winter, with further variation observed in the distribution of attendances by age. Multiple linear regression revealed acute respiratory infection and bronchitis were sensitive to increasing RSV activity in infants. A less specific all respiratory indicator was found to be sensitive to RSV, showing the ability for this ED system to make full use of data even from sites using basic diagnosis coding.