Evaluating the Timeliness of Enteric Disease Surveillance in British Columbia, Canada, 2012-13

Table 2

Comparison of time intervals between steps in the surveillance of enteric diseases between BC (2012-13) and other regions¹.

	Time interval	Salmonella median in days		STEC median in days		Shigella median in days		Listeria median in days
		BC	Int’l	BC	Int’l	BC	Int’l	BC	Int’l
Laboratory surveillance	1: symptom onset to sample collection	6	4 [3, 4]	4	3 [3]	7	2 [3]	3	NA
	2: sample collection to sample receipt at PHL	5	6 [8]	4	5 [8]	4	NA	3	6 [8]
	3: sample receipt at PHL to PHL confirmation (incl. serotype or species)	3	5 [4]; 4 [8]; 6 [7]	6	5 [8]	1	NA	6	NA
	A2: symptom onset to start of PFGE	21	18 [3]	19	15 [3]	22	21 [3]	NA	NA
	A3: sample collection to report of PT results to provincial epidemiologists	28	25 [4]	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA
	A4: sample receipt at PHL to report of PFGE result to provincial epidemiologists	23	5 [8]	17	4 [8]	33	NA	NA	4 [8]
Epidemiological surveillance	9: sample collection to local/regional health authority notification	4	6 [4]; 6 [6]	5	4 [6]	4	6 [6]	3	5 [6]
	B1: symptom onset to completed interview	14	14 [3]	12	12 [3]	14	14 [3]	13	NA
	B2: symptom onset to local/regional health authority notification	11	9 [3]	10	7 [3]; 11 [5]	13	8 [3]	7	NA
	B3: local/regional health authority notification to first attempt to contact	1	2 [8]	1	2 [8]	NA	NA	4^2	2 [8]

Number in brackets refer to the associated references. Only 8 cases.