Symptom- and Laboratory-Based Ebola Risk Scores to Differentiate Likely Ebola Infections

Rapidly identifying likely Ebola patients is difficult because of a broad case definition, overlap of symptoms with common illnesses, and lack of rapid diagnostics. However, rapid identification is critical for care and containment of contagion. We analyzed retrospective data from 252 Ebola-positive...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published inEmerging infectious diseases Vol. 23; no. 11; pp. 1792 - 1799
Main Authors Oza, Shefali, Sesay, Alieu A, Russell, Neal J, Wing, Kevin, Boufkhed, Sabah, Vandi, Lahai, Sebba, Sahr C, Cummings, Rachael, Checchi, Francesco
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published United States U.S. National Center for Infectious Diseases 01.11.2017
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Subjects
Care and treatment
Creatine
Creatine kinase
Development and progression
Diarrhea
disease outbreaks
Ebola
Ebola hemorrhagic fever
Health aspects
hemorrhagic fever
Infection
risk
Risk factors
Sierra Leone
Symptom- and Laboratory-Based Ebola Risk Scores to Differentiate Likely Ebola Infections
viruses
United Kingdom
Sierra Leone
Ebola virus
EVD
viruses
hemorrhagic fever
Sierra Leone
disease outbreaks
risk
Ebola
Ebola virus disease
Online AccessGet full text

Cover

More Information
Summary:Rapidly identifying likely Ebola patients is difficult because of a broad case definition, overlap of symptoms with common illnesses, and lack of rapid diagnostics. However, rapid identification is critical for care and containment of contagion. We analyzed retrospective data from 252 Ebola-positive and 172 Ebola-negative patients at a Sierra Leone Ebola treatment center to develop easy-to-use risk scores, based on symptoms and laboratory tests (if available), to stratify triaged patients by their likelihood of having Ebola infection. Headache, diarrhea, difficulty breathing, nausea/vomiting, loss of appetite, and conjunctivitis comprised the symptom-based score. The laboratory-based score also included creatinine, creatine kinase, alanine aminotransferase, and total bilirubin. This risk score correctly identified 92% of Ebola-positive patients as high risk for infection; both scores correctly classified >70% of Ebola-negative patients as low or medium risk. Clinicians can use these risk scores to gauge the likelihood of triaged patients having Ebola while awaiting laboratory confirmation.
Bibliography:ObjectType-Article-1
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
ObjectType-Feature-2
content type line 23
ISSN:1080-6040
1080-6059
DOI:10.3201/eid2311.170171