Developing a syndromic surveillance tool to support the epidemiological investigation into paediatric acute hepatitis of unknown aetiology in England
We demonstrate how syndromic surveillance provided support to the HUA outbreak using an existing syndromic surveillance framework to develop new indicators based on the newly emerging clinical symptoms. The outputs from the syndromic tool matched clinical and epidemiological findings with respect to trends in other HUA-related data, including clinical and laboratory reports, over time. This work demonstrates the potential for syndromic surveillance supporting the epidemiological surveillance of hepatitis and providing a valuable tool for the real-time management of future unknown health threats.
Authors
- Thomas Hughes (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5490-1267)
- Kirsty Challen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4032-5531)
- Helen E. Hughes (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3664-2983)
- Alex J. Elliot (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6414-3065)
- Conall H. Watson (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2469-791X)
- Christopher Bennett (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3977-0008)
- Sema Mandal (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3379-3118)
- Daniel Todkill (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4325-4786)
- Gillian Smith (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4257-0568)
Institutions
- Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (GB)
- Public Health England (GB)
- Oxford University Hospitals NHS Trust (GB)
- UK Health Security Agency (GB)
Publication Details
- Journal
- BMC Public Health
- Published
- 2025-05-31
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-025-23222-0
- Primary Topic
- Viral gastroenteritis research and epidemiology
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00
Funders
- National Institute for Health Research Health Protection Research Unit
- National Institute for Health and Care Research
- Department of Health and Social Care
- King's College London
- College of Emergency Medicine
- Royal College of Emergency Medicine