Early surveillance and public health emergency disposal measures between novel coronavirus disease 2019 and avian influenza in China: a case-comparison study

Tiantian Zhang; Wenming Shi; Ying Wang; Ge Bai; Ruiming Dai; Qian Wang; Li Luo

emergency disposal between H7N9 avian influenza (2013) in Shanghai, China and 26 COVID-19 in Wuhan, China. 27 Findings: A report to the local Center for Disease Control and Prevention, China, for 28 the first hospitalized patient was sent after 6 and 20 days for H7N9 avian influenza 29 and COVID-19, respectively. In contrast, the pathogen was identified faster in the 30 case of COVID-19 than in the case of H7N9 avian influenza (12 days vs. 31 days). 31 The government response regarding COVID-19 was 10 days later than that regarding 32 avian influenza. The entire process of early surveillance and public health emergency 33 disposal lasted 5 days longer in COVID-19 than in H7N9 avian influenza (46 days vs. Comparative analysis 98 We compared the six key time nodes during the entire period from the detection 99 of the first case to the launch of the health emergency response between COVID-19 in 100 Wuhan City and H7N9 avian influenza in Shanghai. They were as follows: 101 hospitalization of the first case, hospital report to the local CDC, laboratory 102 identification of the pathogen, technical recheck of the pathogen, confirmation and 103 notification of the pathogen, and launch of emergency disposal through the Chinese 104 government. 105 We further evaluated the following three crucial periods during the public health 106 emergency disposal of emerging infectious diseases: time taken by the hospital to 107 report a case to the local CDC, time taken to identify the pathogen i.e., organization of 108 the CDC laboratory to detect and recheck the pathogen, and time taken by the 109 government to respond i.e., implementation of the emergency response once the 110 pathogen is confirmed. Moreover, we calculated the number of days during each time 111 node using the hospitalization time reference of the first case as the benchmark. The 112 duration between detecting the first case and report the first death was also analyzed 113 in the study.