Mobile based surveillance platform for detecting Zika virus among Spanish Delegates attending the Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games

Zika virus has created a major epidemic in Central and South America, especially in Brazil, during 2015-16. The infection is strongly associated with fetal malformations, mainly microcephaly, and neurological symptoms in adults. During the preparation of the Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games in 2016, mem...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:PloS one 2018-08, Vol.13 (8), p.e0201943-e0201943
Main Authors: Rodriguez-Valero, Natalia, Luengo Oroz, Miguel, Cuadrado Sanchez, Daniel, Vladimirov, Alexander, Espriu, Marina, Vera, Isabel, Sanz, Sergi, Gonzalez Moreno, Jose Luis, Muñoz, Jose, Ledesma Carbayo, Maria Jesus
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adults
Applications programs
Athletes
Biology and life sciences
Brazil
Computer and Information Sciences
Conjunctivitis
Cough
Data processing
Diagnosis
Diarrhea
Disease Outbreaks
Engineering
Epidemics
Female
Fetuses
Headache
Hospitals
Humans
Imported diseases
Incidence
Infections
Infectious diseases
Influenza
Internet
Localization
Male
Medical research
Medicine and Health Sciences
Microcephaly
Microencephaly
Mobile computing
Olympic games
Paralympic Games
Population Surveillance
Prevention
Public health
Real time
Risk factors
Smartphones
Soccer
Spain
Surveillance
Tournaments & championships
Travel
Travel-Related Illness
Tropical Medicine
Vector-borne diseases
Viruses
Zika Virus
Zika virus infection
Zika Virus Infection - epidemiology
Zika Virus Infection - virology
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Summary:Zika virus has created a major epidemic in Central and South America, especially in Brazil, during 2015-16. The infection is strongly associated with fetal malformations, mainly microcephaly, and neurological symptoms in adults. During the preparation of the Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games in 2016, members of Olympic Delegations worldwide expressed their concern about the health consequences of being infected with Zika virus. A major risk highlighted by the scientific community was the impact on the spreading of the virus into new territories immediately after the Games. To detect real-time incidence of symptoms compatible with arboviral diseases and other tropical imported diseases among the Spanish Olympic Delegation (SOD) attending the Rio Olympic Games in 2016. We developed a surveillance platform based on a mobile application installed in participant's smartphones that monitored the health status of the SOD through a daily interactive check of the user health status including geo-localization data. The results were evaluated by a study physician on-call through a web-based platform monitoring system. Participants presenting severe symptoms or those compatible with Zika infection prompted an alarm in the system triggering specialized medical assistance and allowing early detection and control of the introduction of arboviral diseases in Spain. The system was downloaded by 189 participants and used by 143 of them (76%). Median age was 38 years (IQR 16), and 134 (71%) were male. Mean duration of travel was 19 days (+/-9SD). During the Games the highest accumulated incidence observed was for headache: 6.06% cough: 5.30% and conjunctivitis: 3.03%. The incidence rate of cough during the Olympic Games was 1.1% per day per person, followed by headache 0.8% and 0.4% conjunctivitis or diarrhea. In our cohort we observed that non-athletes experienced more incidence of symptoms, except for incidence of cough which was the same in the two groups (1.1%). No participants reported symptoms fulfilling Zika definition case. Our system did not find cases fulfilling Zika definition amongst participants of the SOD during the Games, consistent with limited cases of Zika in Rio during the Games. The app showed good usability and the web based monitoring platform allowed to manage infectious cases in real-time. The overall system has proven to serve as a real-time surveillance platform for detecting symptoms that could be present in tropical imported diseases, especially arbovi
ISSN:1932-6203
1932-6203
DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0201943