Sir

In your excellent News story “Epidemiology gains an ally in bioweapons surveillance project” (Nature 411, 228; 2001), summarizing the rapid syndrome validation project (RSVP) for early 'syndrome-based' epidemiological reporting, you faithfully reported my statement that “This rapid reporting already appears to have this year averted two outbreaks of hepatitis A” and that antiviral-drug prescription frequency may have been altered.

This information was incorrect. I based these statements on early, anecdotal evidence that I cannot fully support. I should have checked my sources more carefully. I regret the error, and take full responsibility for it. All other aspects of the News story are accurate.

I look forward to reporting, in a future paper, the benefits and downsides of the novel systematic approach to disease reporting that we are taking at RSVP, once we have accumulated a sufficiently large database. We are fortunate to have funding from the US Department of Energy to expand the project to multiple reporting sites in various clinical settings, including non-academic medical clinics and public-health clinics on both sides of the Mexico–US border.