Developing a syndromic surveillance tool to support the epidemiological investigation into paediatric acute hepatitis of unknown aetiology in England

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BackgroundDuring 2022, a new public health threat emerged when cases of paediatric acute hepatitis of unknown aetiology (HUA) were identified in children aged under 16 years old in the United Kingdom (UK). At the time, the epidemiology and extent of cases was based upon limited and non-standardised reporting from hospitals and liver units. We aimed to adapt existing real-time syndromic surveillance systems to support the epidemiological investigation of cases of HUA presenting to emergency departments (EDs) in England.MethodsSyndromic surveillance is generally based on the collection of patient symptoms or chief complaints, which are collected using automated routines in near real-time. Here, we used an existing ED syndromic surveillance system monitoring daily patient attendances across a network of approximately 150 EDs in England. Clinical diagnosis codes related to the potential symptoms associated with the HUA incident were selected and attendance data monitored retrospectively and prospectively during the incident.ResultsFrom 2 April 2018 to 31 December 2021, there were small sporadic numbers of daily ED attendances for ‘liver conditions’ in children with no observed secular trends or seasonality across the 1 to 4 and 5 to 14 years age groups. The period 2 April to 29 July was compared across each year included in the analysis. Mean daily HUA attendances during 2018 to 2021 was 0.05 and 0.22 for 1 to 4 and 5 to 14 years respectively, however in 2022 there were 0.26 and 0.42 mean daily attendances. This represented an increase of 377% and 94% in the 1 to 4 and 5 to 14 years age groups, respectively. From June 2022, daily syndromic ‘liver condition’ attendances appeared to decrease and the rate of increase in cumulative attendances slowed.ConclusionsWe demonstrate how syndromic surveillance provided support to the HUA outbreak using an existing syndromic surveillance framework to develop new indicators based on the newly emerging clinical symptoms. The outputs from the syndromic tool matched clinical and epidemiological findings with respect to trends in other HUA-related data, including clinical and laboratory reports, over time. This work demonstrates the potential for syndromic surveillance supporting the epidemiological surveillance of hepatitis and providing a valuable tool for the real-time management of future unknown health threats.