DESA: An R Package for Detecting Epidemics Using a School-Absenteeism Surveillance Framework

Absenteeism among elementary school children has proven useful for early detection of influenza epidemics within a population. This paper presents Detecting Epidemics from School Absenteeism (DESA), an R package developed to: (1) model epidemics using school absenteeism data, (2) raise alerts for potential outbreaks, (3) evaluate the timeliness of alerts using multiple metrics, and (4) simulate household populations, epidemics, and absenteeism patterns to support related research. DESA provides researchers and public health officials with a practical tool for improving early detection of seasonal influenza and other infectious diseases. The package is freely available on CRAN and GitHub for the R community.