Detecting infection in large-scale events

BOSTON, March 1 (UPI) -- Researchers using real-time Internet-based surveillance said they determined no international infectious diseases posed a threat at the Vancouver Games.

Lead author Dr. John Brownstein of Children's Hospital in Boston and Dr. Kamran Khan of St. Michael's Hospital in Toronto say during the 1991 International Special Olympic Games in the United States, an outbreak of measles was triggered by an athlete from Argentina, where a concurrent measles epidemic was underway.

"This integrated knowledge could be used to notify officials at the site of the gathering of an emerging international threat, and could potentially foster a culture of greater international cooperation by motivating cities and countries that share common risks of infectious disease threats to work collaboratively," Brownstein and Khan said in a statement.

The researchers looked at historic patterns of international air traffic into Vancouver during February to predict where travelers would be originating from during the Winter Olympic Games. Travelers came from more than 800 cities worldwide, almost two-thirds traveled from 25 centers on which the researchers concentrated real-time infectious disease surveillance.

The authors integrated knowledge from BIO.DIASPORA and HealthMap -- two independent systems focusing on global air travel and infectious disease surveillance, respectively. No international infectious disease threats were identified that were deemed to pose a serious risk to the Winter Games, the study said.

The findings are published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal.