Key indicators: summary

Prevalence
Number of all current cases (old and new) at a given instance in time for a place

Data to gather
- Number of new and pre-existing cases of a specific disease at a given moment at a given
place
- Population at risk for that disease at that same time for that same place

Formula
Total Nb of cases of a disease at a given place and time
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- x 100
Population at risk for the disease at the same place and time

Gives an indication of:

- Burden of morbidity on health services
- Importance of the problem
- Duration of the disease

Incidence rate per age group per place per time period
Number of new cases of a disease in a specified population over a given period of time

Data to gather:
- number of new cases of a specific disease per time period, age group and place
- population per time period, per age group, per place

Formula:
Nb of new cases occurring in a population during a specified period of time
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- X 100
population at risk at the beginning of that period

Gives an indication of
- Burden of morbidity on health services
- Importance of the problem
- Contagiousness of disease

Attack rate
Cumulative incidence rate of a disease in a specified population over a given period of time

Data to gather
- Number of new cases per time period, per age group per place
- Population per time period, per age group, per place

Formula:

Nb new cases occurring in a population during a specified period of time

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- X 100
Population exposed to risk at the beginning of the period

Gives an indication of:

- Speed with which the epidemic is progressing
- Contagiousness of disease

1
Specific mortality rate
Mortality caused by a specific disease during a certain period for a certain population

Data to gather
- Number of deaths per age group, per place, per disease
- Population per time period, per age group, per place

Formula:
Number of deaths per age group, per place, for a specific disease k
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- x ----------
Observed population Period

Gives an indication of:

- Importance of the mortality due to the specific disease

Proportionate mortality rate:

Proportion of the deaths caused by a specific disease

Data to gather
- Number of deaths per age group, per place, per disease

Formula:
Number of deaths per age group, per place, for a specific disease
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- x k
Number of total deaths during time t

Gives an indication of:

- Importance of the mortality due to the specific disease

Overall case fatality rate:

Proportion of cases that died per place and age group

Data to be gathered:
Number of cases and deaths per place and age group

Formula:
Number of deaths due to a disease
-----------------------------------------------
Number of case of the same disease

Gives an indication of:

- The lethality of the disease
- The quality of the case management
- Access to health care

2
Hospital age-specific case fatality rate:
The proportion of cases, that die in hospital, due to a specific disease for a given age group.

Data to be gathered:
- Number of cases admitted to the hospital for a specific disease and age group
- Number of deaths in the hospital for a specific disease and age group

Formula:
Nb of deaths in hospital due to a specific disease for a specific age group
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Number of deaths due to the same disease for the same age class

Gives an indication of:

- Quality of case management
- Access to health care
- Quality and quantity of health staff

Vaccination coverage
Proportion of people vaccinated from the total target population for the vaccination activities.

Data to be gathered:
- Target population
- Number of people vaccinated

Formula:
Number of people vaccinated
--------------------------------------- x 100
Target population

Gives an indication of:

- Protection against the disease offered by the vaccination programme

Vaccination effectiveness:

Data to be gathered:
Vaccination coverage
Number of cases that have been previously vaccinated

Formula:
PPV-PVC PPV = proportion of population vaccinated
--------------------
PPV x ( 1- PVC) PVC = proportion of cases vaccinated

Gives an indication of:

- the quality of the vaccination program

3
Crude mortality rate per 10,000 per day:

Data to be gathered:
- Number of death in a specific population and place for a specific day or number
of days
- Average of the population in that place during that day or number of days.

Formula:
Nb of deaths 10,000
-------------------------- x ------------
Average population days

Gives an indication of :
The severity of the situation Severe situation: ≥ 1 per 10,000 per day
Critical situation: ≥ 2 per 10,000 per day
Multiply by 2 for the under five rates