PASSIVE SURVEILLANCE FOR KAWASAKI-DISEASE IN SAN-DIEGO COUNTY

Background. Kawasaki disease (KD) is the most common cause of acquired heart disease in children in the United States, Epidemiologic surveil lance is conducted to monitor baseline incidence of the disease and to identify epidemics, The aim of this study was to evaluate a passive s urveillance system for reporting cases of KD in San Diego County to th e local, state and national health authorities, Methods, We performed a retrospective review of a S-year period to identify the number of pa tients who met criteria of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevent ion for diagnosis of KD and who were successfully reported to the coun ty, state and national databases, Results, The total number of KD pati ents for 1994 and 1995 was determined by retrospective review of medic al record discharge diagnosis codes, Of the 28 San Diego County reside nts diagnosed with KD in 1994, 24 (86%) met CDC criteria and 15 (63%) of these eligible patients were reported to the county and state healt h authorities, Of the 41 residents in 1995, 34 (83%) met CDC criteria and 22 (65%) were reported to the above agencies, No patient in either 1994 or 1995 was reported by local or state health authorities to the CDC, Conclusion, Passive surveillance for KD in San Diego County resu lted in the reporting of approximately two-thirds of the eligible pati ents at the county and state levels but completely failed to report an y documented cases to the CDC, Implementation of a sentinel hospital r eporting system should be considered as a preferred alternative to nat ional passive surveillance in the effort to track total numbers of pat ients and to follow disease trends over time.