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Infectious Disease Early Warning

An early detection system for infectious diseases, integrating data from outpatient clinics, hospitals, ambulance transport, pharmacies, schools, nursery schools, and elderly care facilities across Japan.

Explore the System
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Multi-Channel Data

Eight surveillance channels including outpatient, inpatient, ambulance, OTC pharmacy, nursery school, school absenteeism, elderly facilities, and laboratory testing.

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Early Detection

Syndromic surveillance identifies unusual patterns before laboratory confirmation, enabling faster public health responses to emerging outbreaks.

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Event Monitoring

Enhanced surveillance was conducted at major mass gatherings including the Hokkaido Toyako Summit 2008, APEC Yokohama 2010, and COP10 Nagoya 2010.

How Syndromic Surveillance Works

Syndromic surveillance monitors health-related data in near real-time to detect signals of infectious disease outbreaks before conventional diagnosis-based systems. By tracking symptoms and proxy indicators — such as school absenteeism, pharmacy dispensing, and ambulance transports — public health authorities can identify anomalies and respond earlier.

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Surveillance Channels

Syndromic surveillance in Japan draws on a broad range of data sources, each contributing a distinct signal for outbreak detection. These channels collectively provide a comprehensive picture of community health status, from clinical settings to everyday community indicators.

  • Outpatient (外来) — clinic visit symptom data
  • Inpatient (入院) — hospital admission surveillance
  • Ambulance Transport (救急車搬送) — emergency call patterns
  • OTC Pharmacy (OTC) — over-the-counter medication sales
  • Nursery School (保育園) — preschool absenteeism tracking
  • School Absenteeism (学校欠席) — nationwide school-based system
  • Elderly Facilities (高齢者施設) — care-home health monitoring
  • Laboratory Testing (検査) — test-ordering pattern analysis
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School Absenteeism System

As of January 2016, approximately 23,618 schools across 25 prefectures, 6 designated cities, and 2 special wards — covering about 53% of elementary, junior high, and high schools nationwide.

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Pharmacy Surveillance

Daily influenza estimates derived from anti-influenza drug dispensing data across 10,064 participating pharmacies, with prefecture-level and designated-city breakdowns from the 2009/2010 through 2014/2015 seasons.

Blog

  1. Understanding Time Lags in Syndromic and Laboratory DataPublic-health teams rarely receive a complete picture of an outbreak at a single moment. Different surveillance channels record different stages of illness,…
  2. Find Australian pokies with free spins and multiplier featuresDigital entertainment platforms increasingly use data to make browsing faster, more transparent, and easier to compare. For Australian players exploring online…
  3. Reading Mosquito-Borne Disease Signals in CitiesMosquito-borne infections can spread through an urban population before health authorities receive laboratory confirmation. A person may first visit a clinic…
  4. Routine Signals for Faster Public Health ActionPublic health teams often need to act before a diagnosis is confirmed. Laboratory testing remains essential, but results can arrive after a rise in respiratory…
  5. Integrating school and clinic data to reveal community transmissionInfectious disease outbreaks rarely begin with a clear laboratory signal. The first indications may be scattered across ordinary services: several children…
  6. Syndromic Surveillance for Mass Poisonings and Chemical ExposuresMass poisonings and chemical exposures can develop faster than conventional disease reporting systems can respond. People may arrive at emergency departments…
  7. Evaluating Pharmacy-Based Respiratory Surveillance SensitivityPharmacies can reveal changes in respiratory illness before laboratory confirmation becomes widely available. A rise in cough medicines, antipyretics,…
  8. Using Syndromic Signals to Direct Care During OutbreaksDuring an infectious disease outbreak, medical demand can shift faster than confirmed case counts. Emergency departments may fill before laboratory results are…
  9. Syndromic surveillance for vaccine-preventable disease breachesVaccination protects communities by reducing transmission, severe illness, and the chance that a local infection becomes a wider outbreak. Yet protection can…
  10. Syndromic Surveillance And Pandemic Influenza PreparednessPandemic influenza preparedness depends on recognising unusual illness activity before a complete laboratory picture is available. Confirmatory testing remains…

Technical Support

For inquiries about the syndromic surveillance systems, including the school absenteeism information collection system and pharmacy surveillance:

Contact: Yasushi Ohkusa, Senior Researcher

Institution: Infectious Disease Epidemiology Center, National Institute of Infectious Diseases

FAX: 03-5285-1129

Email: ohkusa@nih.go.jp

All inquiries accepted by FAX or email only. For school absenteeism system login issues, please contact your municipal board of education or childcare division.