Human melioidosis reported by ProMED

Abstract

HighlightsProMED would be used to assess the reliability of the data of emerging infectious diseases, such as melioidosis.The study evaluated the effectiveness of ProMED as a source of epidemiological data by focusing on melioidosis.This work identified 4630 cases of melioidosis with an overall case fatality rate of 11%, mainly reported from Australia, Thailand, Singapore, Vietnam, and Malaysia.Although certain areas need to be improved, ProMED provided good information about melioidosis.

Coronavirus infections reported by ProMED, February 2000–January 2020

“…Although ProMED proved to be a useful source of information about coronavirus, it was evident that it gave a misleading impression of the distribution and mortality in some areas, as has been previously reported for other infections [15]. We think it would be useful to consider the adoption of standardized templates for reporting to ProMED in order to enhance the standardization of data and provide clear, accurate and reliable information that could be used in conducting epidemiological analyses to establish the status of emerging diseases and assist in their recognition and control, as has been previously suggested [23]. Besides, we think it would be useful for reports in one language to be mirrored to ProMED in other languages, especially when it is the language of the country from which the report originated.…”

“…When compared with the information provided by reports in the subject literature, the most notable finding was that the CFR identifiable from ProMED was low in comparison with the published literature 10% for SARS-CoV and 37% for MERS-CoV. The coronaviruses already identified might only be the tip of the iceberg, with potentially more novel and severe zoonotic events to be revealed [1], but under-reporting of fatal cases by ProMED is not surprising, as the purpose is to act as an early alert system, and outcomes may not be known at the time of posting [23]. Besides, the data were incomplete with regards to characteristics such as gender, age and occupation (last, no analyzed).…”

“…We reviewed the coronaviruses incidents reported by ProMED and assessed the reliability of the data retrieved compared to published reports, as has been previously performed for Crimean Congo Hemorrhagic Fever [15] and melioidosis [23]. We thus evaluated the effectiveness of ProMED as an epidemiological data source by focusing on coronaviruses.…”

Melioidosis in the non-endemic setting: Not only in diabetic travelers returning from Southeast Asia

“…While predominantly prevalent in Southeast Asia and Northern Australia, there is increasing evidence that its distribution in tropical areas is much larger than previously thought [1,2]. If Western infectious disease specialists were asked to provide snapshot information on this rare condition, those most informed would probably answer that it sporadically affects travelers, mainly those with underlying illness (in particular diabetes mellitus) after environmental exposure in Southeast Asia, and that the disease may have various, often severe, manifestations and requires a rather complex and prolonged treatment.…”

Using text mining to track outbreak trends in global surveillance of emerging diseases: ProMED-mail

“…Katherinn et al focused on human melioidosis to evaluate the utility of ProMED for infection control. They observed that ProMED provided daily reports of melioidosis occurrence which helped healthcare workers manage to control the diseases [4]. Besides, Ince et al assessed the reports related to Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever virus and validated ProMED as a platform for integrating news of different sources [5].…”