Surveillance of Infectious Diseases Flashcards
Define ‘surveillance’.
The systematic ongoing collection, collation and analysis of data for public health purposes and the timely dissemination of public health information for assessment and public health response as necessary.
List the different types of survelliance.
- Active
- Passive
- Sentinel
What is active survelliance?
Searching for cases
What is passive surveillance?
Data routinely gathered through reports from healthcare professionals (eg. hospitals, laboratories, GPs)
What is sentinel surveillance?
A group of healthcare sites from which data is retrieved, with more detailed information typically available
List the key elements of surveillance.
- Collection of health data expressly for use in health planning, disease control/ prevention, and/or health promotion
- Ongoing collection of data
- Timely analysis
- Easily understood
- Dissemination of results
- Action based on results
- Periodic evaluation of the system
What two types of sources of data are there within surveillance of infectious diseases?
Morbidity and mortality.
What source of data is under the mortality category?
Deaths
What source of data is under the morbidity category?
- Hospitalised cases
- Community cases seen by a general practitioner
- Community cases not seen by a general practitioner
List other potential sources of data.
- Patient registers
- Notifications
- Hospital Episode Statistics
- Screening programmes
List the reasons as to why we need surveillance.
- How much infection there is
- The change over time of the infection
- Detection of emerging epidemics and
- Identifying the groups most affected
- Transmissibility of the infection
- IMPACT ON HEALTH SERVICES AND MORTALITY
- EVALUATION OF PREVENTION AND CONTROL
- RELEVANT BEHAVIOURS
- GENERATE HYPOTHESES
- RESEARCH AND MODELLING
- EVIDENCE BASE FOR POLICY AND GUIDANCE FORMULATION
