Prescription Surveillance and Polymerase Chain Reaction Testing to Identify Pathogens during Outbreaks of Infection

Figure 3

Combination cold medication prescriptions recorded by the prescription surveillance system over time. On September 26, 2011, we noticed an unusual peak and then carefully monitored the real-time prescription surveillance and found a second peak on October 3, 2011. We confirmed this abnormality and began this study on the following day (October 4, 2011).