DISEASE SURVEILLANCE SYSTEMS

Effectiveness of Disease Surveillance Systems

Table of Contents

Introduction3

An integrated approach to communicable disease surveillance4

Current Situation4

Analysis6

Surveillance Systems in Different Regions7

China8

India10

Central America11

A proposed framework12

Strengthening the System over the Long-term14

Conclusion15

References16

Effectiveness of Disease Surveillance Systems

Introduction

Surveillance is an essential tool for tracking the size and changing trajectory of an epidemic in order to design and adjust interventions to achieve the most effective response. Surveillance systems should be tailored to specific epidemic contexts, collecting and analyzing reliable and regularly updated information. This includes data that characterize the variation in transmission dynamics that may be fueling the epidemic in different populations or geographic areas within a country. Due to the complexity of transmission dynamics present in different types of epidemic settings, it has been recommended that HIV surveillance systems encompass a wide range of data collection activities, including HIV and AIDS case reporting, sentinel surveillance, STI surveillance, size estimation of high-risk groups, and probability-based sampling for biological and behavioral surveillance.

These types of activities have been a growing part of HIV surveillance systems since the year 2000, when UNAIDS and WHO published guidelines to help countries move beyond prevalence measures and AIDS case reporting, and adopt second generation HIV surveillance (SGS) systems (Thacker & Berkelman, 2002). The SGS approach emphasizes the integration of size estimates of risk groups and tracking the behaviors driving the epidemic with prevalence trends to characterize the epidemic in smaller, homogenous geographic units. Most importantly systems should be designed to have the flexibility to move with the needs and evolving status of the epidemic. Subsequent to the initial SGS guidelines, a series of additional guidance documents were published, each addressing a specific technical topic such as pre-surveillance assessments, size estimation, and laboratory quality assurance.

An integrated approach to communicable disease surveillance

Effective control of communicable diseases depends on effective response systems, and in turn, the effective response systems rely on efficient monitoring of disease. A functional surveillance system is essential to provide information for social action BRE priority communicable diseases, is an instrument crucial element for making public health decisions all countries. Surveillance data provide information that can be used to establish priorities, political decisions, planning, execution, allocation and resource mobilization and the prediction and de- Early protection of epidemics (Holtzman, 2003). A surveillance system also is used for monitoring, evaluation and improvement of programs for prevention and control diseases. Disease surveillance is, so- to, a critical component of the health system, as pro- provides essential information for optimal performance health care and health strategy for cost-effective.

Current Situation

Many countries conduct surveillance activities communicable diseases to monitor those with a high burden of morbidity or mortality detect outbreaks of en- epidemic diseases and monitor progress towards the control national or international eradication goals endemic diseases. However, the activities of surveillance have developed unevenly, which reflects the particular historical background of the threats forces of infectious diseases and their response in each country. Today, most surveillance activities supported and managed by a variety of vertical programs disease control ...