[EQ] Trends and Directions of Global Public Health Surveillance

Trends and Directions of Global Public Health Surveillance

Carlos Castillo-Salgado, Department of Epidemiology, Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore MD USA
Epidemiologic Reviews -  Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

June 9, 2010 DOI: 10.1093/epirev/mxq008

Website: http://bit.ly/bJHCu2

“………..Recently, global health and global health surveillance have received unprecedented recognition of their importance because of the newly emerging and reemerging infectious diseases, new cycles of pandemics, and the threats of bioterrorism.

 

The aim of this review is to provide an update of the current state of knowledge on health surveillance in a globalized world. Three key areas will be highlighted in this review:

1) the role of the new International Health Regulations,
2) the emergence of new global health networks for surveillance and bioterrorism, and
3) the reshaping of guidelines for the collection, dissemination, and interventions in global surveillance.

 

A discussion is also presented of the more important challenges of global health surveillance. Global surveillance has been reshaped by important changes in the new International Health Regulations and the rapid development of new global networks for disease surveillance and bioterrorism. These networks provide for the first time at the global scale real-time information about potential outbreaks and epidemics of newly emerging and reemerging infectious diseases.

 

The recent outbreaks of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and the influenza A (H1N1) pandemic provide evidence of the benefits of the new global monitoring and of the importance of the World Health Organization in its coordinating role in the multilateral response of the global public health community….”

 

“…….There is agreement among the different reviewed professional assessments that key constraints and challenges for global public health are as follows:

1. The development of core capacities for new surveillance and response systems for developing countries is affected by the lack or shortages of resources, limited trained national staff and officials, and weak networks of laboratories.

2. Many countries have multiple independent surveillance and health information systems with limited coordination and no interoperability.

3. Laboratory facilities in many developing countries are not familiar with quality assurance and control principles and regulations, and a large percentage of their equipment is obsolete or not functioning.

4. Joint surveillance protocols and innovative systems of early detection of emerging diseases of animal origin that might threaten human health are needed. There is also a pressing need to have better integration and close collaboration of zoonotic and human surveillance systems.

5. The global disease monitoring through automated classification and visualization of events using electronic means is a limited option in many countries where the technologic divide is extreme. Large numbers of countries or areas in the interior of the countries have no access to the Internet or to basic computerized systems.

6. Local health facilities in a large number of countries have limited operating telecommunications and transportation capabilities available.

7. Traditionally, official surveillance systems are operated by staff not linked to the response teams, and the information collected is outdated and fragmented.

8. Many countries with severe human rights protection problems have difficulty maintaining the principles of fairness, objectivity, and transparency.

9. Compliance with global health regulations will require constant economic and technical cooperation with poorer countries……..”

 

 

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