Real-Time Microbiology Laboratory Surveillance System to Detect Abnormal Events and Emerging Infections, Marseille, France

Cédric Abat (1) , Hervé Chaudet (2) , Philippe Colson (1) , Jean-Marc Rolain (1) , Didier Raoult (1)

1 AMU - Aix Marseille Université
2 SESSTIM - U912 INSERM - Aix Marseille Univ - IRD - Sciences Economiques et Sociales de la Santé & Traitement de l'Information Médicale

Infectious diseases are a major threat to humanity, and accurate surveillance is essential. We describe how to implement a laboratory data–based surveillance system in a clinical microbiology laboratory. Two historical Microsoft Excel databases were implemented. The data were then sorted and used to execute the following 2 surveillance systems in Excel: the Bacterial real-time Laboratory-based Surveillance System (BALYSES) for monitoring the number of patients infected with bacterial species isolated at least once in our laboratory during the study periodl and the Marseille Antibiotic Resistance Surveillance System (MARSS), which surveys the primary β-lactam resistance phenotypes for 15 selected bacterial species. The first historical database contained 174,853 identifications of bacteria, and the second contained 12,062 results of antibiotic susceptibility testing. From May 21, 2013, through June 4, 2014, BALYSES and MARSS enabled the detection of 52 abnormal events for 24 bacterial species, leading to 19 official reports. This system is currently being refined and improved.

Mots clés: early warning; data collection; epidemiology; bacteria; microbiology; antimicrobial resistance; public health; syndromic surveillance

Domaines: Sciences du Vivant [q-bio]; Microbiologie et Parasitologie

Cédric Abat, Hervé Chaudet, Philippe Colson, Jean-Marc Rolain, Didier Raoult. Real-Time Microbiology Laboratory Surveillance System to Detect Abnormal Events and Emerging Infections, Marseille, France. Emerging Infectious Diseases, 2015, pp.1302-1310. ⟨10.3201/eid2108.141419⟩. ⟨hal-01199455⟩