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What is Infection Watch Live?
Infection Watch Live was created to inform healthcare providers, educators, businesses & workplaces, parents, and other members of the community about activity trends in visit data to emergency departments at our 9 area hospitals within our region over the last 24 hours.
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What does Infection Watch Live show?
The data is visualized on maps showing real-time infectious activity in our region based on a patient’s symptoms, not by a physicians diagnosis or viral culture. This allows infection control practitioners, family physicians, community access centres, long-term care facilities, schools, parents and child care centres to respond.
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Who might use Infection Watch Live?
Infection Watch Live provides information for healthcare providers, educators, businesses & workplaces, parents, and members of the community.
How does Infection Watch Live work?
Data on Emergency Department visits from 9 of the hospitals within the the Kingston, Frontenac, Lennox & Addington (KFL&A), Hastings and Prince Edward Counties (HPEC), and Leeds, Grenville & Lanark District (LGL) Health Units is relayed to KFL&A Public Health where the data is analyzed. A map of illness activity is then generated, giving each user a better understanding of the trends of respiratory and gastrointestinal illnesses circulating in their community.
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How does Infection Watch Live get its information?
When a person visits the Emergency Department, a great deal of information regarding a patient’s demographics and symptoms is collected. Our participating hospitals only provide Infection Watch Live with each patients age, first three digits of their postal code and the reason for their visit. No other personal data is collected or used in our system.
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Which hospitals contribute data to Infection Watch Live?
- Kingston General Hospital (Kingston)
- Hotel Dieu Hospital (Kingston)
- Lennox and Addington County General Hospital (Napanee)
- Belleville General Hospital (Belleville)
- Prince Edward County Memorial Hospital (Picton)
- North Hastings District Hospital (Bancroft)
- Trenton Memorial Hospital (Trenton)
- Perth and Smiths Falls District Hospital (Smiths Falls)
- Great War Memorial Hospital (Perth)
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What do the colours on the map mean?
Green sections correspond to normal activity, Yellow sections correspond to areas of elevated activity and Red sections correspond to higher activity.
Each region is given one of the three colors by comparing the daily counts against historical data from the last 120 days. Green regions are within 1.5 standard deviations from the mean, Yellow regions are within 1.5 - 2.5 standard deviations from the mean, and Red regions are 2.5 + standard deviations from the mean.
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What is respiratory illness?
Respiratory illness is the term used for a group of symptoms that people may complain
of such sinusitis, sore
throat, cough, croup, laryngitis, bronchitis and pneumonia with or without a fever. These symptoms may reflect general respiratory virus activity in the community including respiratory
syncytial virus and influenza.
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What is gastrointestinal illness?
Gastrointestinal illness is the term used for a group of symptoms that people may
complain of such as diarrhea and/or vomiting which may reflect viral pathogens such as noro- or rota- virus,
bacterial toxins as well as bacterial causes such as food borne illnesses (eg. E.coli
and Salmonella).
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Should I be concerned when I see high activity?
It is not necessarily alarming bad news when you see a Red region on the map. You
should, however, take certain precautions to protect yourself from the spread of disease.
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How should I use the information within this website?
The information provided by Infection Watch Live is simply one way to better inform yourself of what is happening in your community. We encourage you to use the information that is provided throughout the website to gain even more knowledge. If you still have questions or concerns about your health, visit your family doctor or call the free Ontario Telehealth hotline at 1-866-797-0000.
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What is a region?
Forward sortation areas (FSA’s) are the first three digits of a postal code (eg. K0K, K7L, K7K). A region on our map is defined by these FSA boundaries. This is a geographic area used by our maps to represent Gastrointestinal and Respiratory activity.
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How can I help improve Infection Watch Live?
You can help improve Infection Watch Live by filling out our 2 minute survey.
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