Use of Open-Source Epidemic Intelligence for Infectious Disease Outbreaks, Ukraine, 2022

Overview

Journal Emerg Infect Dis

Specialty Infectious Diseases

Date 2024 Aug 22

PMID 39173668

Authors

Anjali Kannan

Rosalie Chen

Zubair Akhtar

Braidy Sutton

Ashley Quigley

Margaret J Morris

C Raina MacIntyre

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Formal infectious disease surveillance in Ukraine has been disrupted by Russia's 2022 invasion, leading to challenges with tracking and containing epidemics. To analyze the effects of the war on infectious disease epidemiology, we used open-source data from EPIWATCH, an artificial intelligence early-warning system. We analyzed patterns of infectious diseases and syndromes before (November 1, 2021-February 23, 2022) and during (February 24-July 31, 2022) the conflict. We compared case numbers for the most frequently reported diseases with numbers from formal sources and found increases in overall infectious disease reports and in case numbers of cholera, botulism, tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS, rabies, and salmonellosis during compared with before the invasion. During the conflict, although open-source intelligence captured case numbers for epidemics, such data (except for diphtheria) were unavailable/underestimated by formal surveillance. In the absence of formal surveillance during military conflicts, open-source data provide epidemic intelligence useful for infectious disease control.

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