Table 1 Example Medline search strategy to systematically retrieve literature on hepatitis A underreporting

Search 1^a

Search Terms

 Disease notification, surveillance and underreporting

Mandatory Reporting/ OR Disease Notification/ OR Contact Tracing/ OR exp Population Surveillance/ OR Public Health Informatics/ OR exp Data Collection/ OR Disclosure/ OR exp Informatics/ OR underreport$.mp. OR under-report$.mp. OR (under adj1 report$).mp. OR surveillance.mp. OR reporting.mp. OR ((reported OR true OR estimate$) adj2 (incidence OR prevalence)).mp. OR undetect$.mp. OR capture-recapture.mp.

AND

 Hepatitis A

Hepatitis A/ OR Hepatitis A Virus, Human/ OR Hepatitis A Antibodies/ OR “hepatitis a”.mp.

Search 2^a

Search Terms

 Incidence, prevalence and epidemiology

Incidence/ OR Prevalence/ OR Epidemiology/ OR Statistics & Numerical Data.fs. OR Epidemiology.fs. OR Epidemiologic Measurements/ OR Statistics as Topic/ OR Data Interpretation, Statistical/ OR incidence.mp. OR prevalence.mp. OR epidemiolog$.mp.

AND

 Hepatitis A

Hepatitis A/ OR Hepatitis A Virus, Human/ OR Hepatitis A Antibodies/ OR “hepatitis a”.mp.

AND

 Travel, non- or low-endemic countries

Travel/ OR Travel Medicine/ OR Developed Countries/ OR exp Australia/ OR exp North America/ OR New Zealand/ OR Andorra/ OR Austria/ OR Belgium/ OR Finland/ OR exp France/ OR exp Germany/ OR Gibraltar/ OR exp Great Britain/ OR Greece/ OR Iceland/ OR Ireland/ OR exp Italy/ OR Liechtenstein/ OR Luxembourg/ OR Monaco/ OR Netherlands/ OR Portugal/ OR San Marino/ OR exp Scandinavia/ OR Spain/ OR Switzerland/ OR Japan/ OR Singapore/ OR Hong Kong/ OR (non-endemic$ OR nonendemic$ OR (non adj1 endemic$) OR low-endemic$ OR (low adj1 endemic$) OR travel$ OR developed countr$ OR Australia OR North America OR Canada OR United States OR New Zealand OR Western Europe OR Andorra OR Austria OR Belgium OR Finland OR France OR Germany OR Gibraltar OR Great Britain OR England OR Scotland OR Ireland OR United Kingdom OR Wales OR Greece OR Iceland OR Italy OR Liechtenstein OR Luxembourg OR Monaco OR Netherlands OR Portugal OR San Marino OR Scandinavia OR Spain OR Switzerland OR Cyprus OR Denmark OR Norway OR Sweden OR Greenland OR Japan OR Singapore OR Hong Kong).mp.