[EpiData-list] Dealing with 'Ongoing' duration in epicurves

I would appreciate it if those working with outbreaks could reply about how they enter and display "ongoing" duration of illness. I have been given an Excel sheet to analyse in Epidata. For this outbreak people were asked the date and time when they became unwell and the date and time when they felt better. There is a calculated field in the spreadsheet that calculates duration in days (date better - date unwell), but for some people this is empty because "ongoing" has been entered as text in the "date better" field. I want to modify the Excel sheet so I include those people with 'ongoing' illness in an epidemic curve.

I thought I could enter a date sometime in the future instead of 'ongoing' This would mean the duration days would not be blank, but a number of days well beyond the maximum value for those whose illness is finished. What do others do?

thanks

Christine

Christine Roseveare Analyst Regional Public Health 570 9194 027 495 9671