The difficulties of early detection for infectious disease outbreak in China: A qualitative investigation

Abstract Objective To make intensified analysis upon the existing difficulties in early detection for the infectious diseases outbreak in China and put forward some effective measures to improve it. Methods Field investigation and in-depth interview were applied in 23 interviewees from different-level CDC. Results The study findings suggest that although the timeliness of outbreak detection has been improved since SARS epidemic in China, some problems still exist, such as: lacking syndrome surveillance; report quality of infectious disease should be improved; difficulties of identifying the cases at lower social economic status; adefinitefinancial compensation mechanism for the operation of web-based report system is absent; insufficient information exchange among different branches. Conclusion Some effective measures must be taken including developing syndrome surveillance system; affording more education and training for related staff; increasing payout on surveillance and establishing an information exchange platform for early detection of disease outbreak.