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	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

To the Editor: Syndromic surveillance, based on analysis of clinical or administrative data to detect patterns consistent with emerging diseases, could allow for early recognition of attacks with biological or chemical weapons. Since the 2001 terror attacks, many institutions, encouraged by public health authorities and accreditation agencies, have sought to develop their own surveillance systems. However, the sensitivity and specificity of such single-institution systems have not been validated.

Methods

The emergence of West Nile Virus (WNV) as a widespread cause of neurological disease during the summer of 2002 offered a unique opportunity to test the performance of single-institution syndromic surveillance. Between August and October of 2002, more than 700 WNV cases were reported in the state of Illinois, of which more than 500 were in the Chicago area.¹

We reviewed monthly International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision (ICD-9) coding data for July 1998 through October 2002 to determine whether the . . . [Full Text of this Article]

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