[Comparación de la vigilancia centinela de infecciones respiratorias agudas frente a la vigilancia universal en La Rioja en la temporada 2021-2022.]

Objective: Sentinel surveillance is used to monitor health problems. The COVID detection strategy conducts universal surveillance of SARS-CoV-2 infection, which can be monitored by sentinel systems, through surveillance of mild acute respiratory infection (IRA) or severe respiratory infection (IRAG). The objective of this study was to compare incidence data obtained through sentinel surveillance against versus universal surveillance in acute respiratory infections.

Methods: A descriptive study of the incidences (cases/100,000 inhabitants) of acute respiratory infection (sudden onset of cough, sore throat, dyspnea or runny nose and clinical judgment of infection) was carried out in the entire population of La Rioja recorded in the primary care medical record, and in a sentinel cohort, by age and sex during the period from weeks 40-2021 to 06-2022. For SARI, the total number of hospitalized cases per 100,000 inhabitants with onset of symptoms in the previous ten days was calculated, as well as the incidence in a systematic selection of all SARI hospitalized one day a week. Weekly incidence rates were calculated in each cohort from week forty of 2021 to week six of 2022 by sex and age group. The characteristics of the population were expressed in their distribution by number and percentage.

Results: The data observed for ARI were similar in both systems by sex and age, except for the zero to four-year-old group and the group over seventy-nine years of age, where differences were observed, with the highest ARI figures in the first age group in sentinel surveillance, while in the older group they were superior in universal surveillance. SARIs showed a similar incidence, except in the fifteen/fourty-four age groups, which was higher in universal surveillance than in sentinel surveillance.

Conclusions: There are no significant differences. Sentinel surveillance allows optimization of resources, being the most efficient methods for surveillance of high-incidence diseases.