scholarly journals Linking Statistics With Testing Policy to Manage COVID-19 in the Community

2020 ◽  
Vol 154 (2) ◽  
pp. 142-148
Author(s):  
Lee H Hilborne ◽  
Zachary Wagner ◽  
Irineo Cabreros ◽  
Robert H Brook
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Disease Surveillance ◽  
Public Health Surveillance ◽  
Clinical Laboratory ◽  
Health Management ◽  
Acute Infection ◽  
Diagnostic Testing ◽  
Health Surveillance ◽  
Testing Strategies ◽  
National Public Health

Abstract Objectives To determine the public health surveillance severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) testing volume needed, both for acute infection and seroprevalence. Methods Required testing volumes were developed using standard statistical methods based on test analytical performance, disease prevalence, desired precision, and population size. Results Widespread testing for individual health management cannot address surveillance needs. The number of people who must be sampled for public health surveillance and decision making, although not trivial, is potentially in the thousands for any given population or subpopulation, not millions. Conclusions While the contributions of diagnostic testing for SARS-CoV-2 have received considerable attention, concerns abound regarding the availability of sufficient testing capacity to meet demand. Different testing goals require different numbers of tests and different testing strategies; testing strategies for national or local disease surveillance, including monitoring of prevalence, receive less attention. Our clinical laboratory and diagnostic infrastructure are capable of incorporating required volumes for many local, regional, and national public health surveillance studies into their current and projected testing capacity. However, testing for surveillance requires careful design and randomization to provide meaningful insights.

Electronic notifiable disease reporting system from primary care health centres in Qatar: a comparison of paper-based versus electronic reporting

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 32-38
Author(s):  
Mohamed Ahmed Syed ◽  
Hanan Al Mujalli ◽  
Catherine Kiely ◽  
Hamda Abdulla A/Qotba ◽  
Khalid Elawad ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Disease Surveillance ◽  
Public Health Surveillance ◽  
Reporting System ◽  
Communicable Disease ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Health Surveillance ◽  
Disease Notification ◽  
Electronic Reporting ◽  
Health Centres

Communicable disease outbreaks can spread rapidly, causing enormous losses to individual health, national economies and social well-being. Therefore, communicable disease surveillance is essential for protecting public health. In Qatar, electronic reporting from primary health centres was proposed as a means of improving disease notification, replacing a paper-based method of reporting (via internal mail, facsimile, email or telephone), which has disadvantages and requires active cooperation and engagement of staff. This study is a predescriptive and postdescriptive analysis, which compared disease notifications received from electronic and paper-based systems during 3-month evaluation periods (quarter 2 in 2016 and quarter 2 in 2018 for paper-based and electronic reporting, respectively) in terms of comprehensiveness, timeliness and completeness. For the 23 notifiable diseases included in this study, approximately twice as many notifications were received through the electronic reporting system as from the paper-based reporting system, demonstrating it is more comprehensive. An overall increase in notifications is likely to have a positive public health impact in Qatar. 100% of electronic notifications were received in a timely manner, compared with 28% for paper-based notifications. Findings of the study show that electronic reporting presents a revolutionary opportunity to advance public health surveillance. It is recommended that electronic reporting be rolled out more widely to improve the completeness, stability and representativeness of the national public health surveillance system in Qatar as well as other countries.

In the Name of Population Well-Being: The Case for Public Health Surveillance

2016 ◽  
Vol 41 (1) ◽  
pp. 119-128 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amy L. Fairchild ◽  
Ronald Bayer
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
Chronic Disease ◽  
Informed Consent ◽  
Disease Surveillance ◽  
Public Health Surveillance ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Health Surveillance ◽  
Public Health Activity ◽  
Individual Informed Consent

AbstractSurveillance is the radar of public health. Without tracking, often by name, the incidence and prevalence of both infectious and chronic disease, health officials would be unable to understand where and how to potentially intervene or what resources might be required to protect populations. Surveillance without individual informed consent has been challenged in the name of both bioethics and human rights. In this article we contend that a robust conception of public health not only justifies surveillance but, without disregarding the need to respect individuals, provides an affirmative duty to engage in surveillance. There may be social and political circumstances in which the names of those reported cannot be protected from unwarranted disclosure and misuse for ends that have little to do with protecting the public's health. But while the potential for misuse requires an ongoing, searching scrutiny of disease surveillance, remote or hypothetical threats should not serve to undermine this vital public health activity.

scholarly journals Surveillance of outbreaks of waterborne infectious disease: categorizing levels of evidence

1998 ◽  
Vol 120 (1) ◽  
pp. 37-42 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. E. TILLETT ◽  
J. de LOUVOIS ◽  
P. G. WALL
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Disease Surveillance ◽  
Public Health Surveillance ◽  
Communicable Disease ◽  
Health Surveillance ◽  
Reasonable Doubt ◽  
Quality Information ◽  
Recreational Water ◽  
Specific Detection ◽  
Subsequent Investigation

Public health surveillance requires the monitoring of waterborne disease, but sensitive and specific detection of relevant incidents is difficult.The Communicable Disease Surveillance Centre receives information from various sources about clusters of cases of illness in England and Wales. The reporter may suspect that water consumption or recreational water exposure is the route of infection, or subsequent investigation may raise the hypothesis that water is associated with illness.It is difficult to prove beyond reasonable doubt that such a hypothesis is correct. Water samples from the time of exposure are seldom available, some organisms are difficult to detect and almost everyone has some exposure to water. Therefore, we have developed a method of categorizing the degree of evidence used to implicate water. The categories take into account the epidemiology, microbiology and water quality information. Thus outbreaks are classified as being associated with water either ‘strongly’, ‘probably’ or ‘possibly’.This system allows a broad database for monitoring possible effects of water and is not confined to the few outbreaks which have been intensively investigated or have positive environmental microbiology. Thus, for reported incidents, the sensitivity of classifying it as water associated should be high but this may be at the expense of specificity, especially with the ‘possible’ association.

scholarly journals Electronic Reporting of Integrated Disease Surveillance and Response: Lessons Learned from Northeast, Nigeria, 2019.

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luka Mangveep Ibrahim ◽  
Ifeanyi Okudo ◽  
Mary Stephen ◽  
Opeayo Ogundiran ◽  
Jerry Shitta Pantuvo ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Disease Surveillance ◽  
Public Health Surveillance ◽  
Health Surveillance ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Health Facilities ◽  
Supportive Supervision ◽  
Electronic Reporting ◽  
Surveillance And Response ◽  
Word Clouds

Abstract Background: Electronic reporting of integrated disease surveillance and response (eIDSR) was implemented in two states in North-East Nigeria as an innovative strategy to improve disease reporting. Its objectives were to improve the timeliness and completeness of IDSR reporting by health facilities, prompt identification of public health events, timely information sharing, and public health action. We evaluated the project to determine whether it met its set objectives.Method: We conducted a cross-sectional study to assess and document the lessons learned from the project. We reviewed the performance of the Local Government Areas (LGAs) on rumors identification and reporting of IDSR data on the eIDSR and the traditional system using a checklist. Respondents were interviewed online on the relevance; efficiency; sustainability; project progress and effectiveness; effectiveness of management; and potential impact and scalability of the strategy using structured questionnaires. Quantitative data were analyzed and presented as proportions using an MS Excel spreadsheet. Qualitative data was cleaned, converted into an MS Excel database, and analyzed using Epi Info version 7.2 to obtain frequencies. Responses were also presented as direct quotes or word clouds.Results: The number of health facilities reporting IDSR increased from 103 to 228 (117%) before and after implementation of the eIDSR respectively. The completeness of IDSR reports in the last six months before the evaluation was ≥ 85%. Of the 201 rumors identified and verified, 161 (80%) were from the eIDSR pilot sites. The majority of the stakeholders interviewed believed that eIDSR met its predetermined objectives for public health surveillance. The benefits of eIDSR included timely reporting and response to alerts and disease outbreaks, improved completeness, and timeliness of reporting, and supportive supervision to the operational levels. The strategy helped the stakeholders to appreciate their roles in public health surveillance.Conclusion: The eIDSR increased the number of health facilities reporting IDSR, enabled early identification, reporting, and verification of alerts, improved completeness of reports, and supportive supervision on staff at the operational levels. It was well accepted by the stakeholder as a system that made reporting easy with the potential to improve the public health surveillance system in Nigeria.

scholarly journals Cholera Public Health Surveillance System in Cameroon

2015 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Moise C. Ngwa ◽  
Song Liang ◽  
Leonard Mbam ◽  
Mouhaman Arabi ◽  
Andrew Teboh ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Data Analysis ◽  
Surveillance System ◽  
Disease Surveillance ◽  
Public Health Surveillance ◽  
National Level ◽  
Health Surveillance ◽  
Rapid Response ◽  
Surveillance And Response ◽  
Public Health Surveillance System

Public health surveillance is essential for early detection and rapid response to cholera outbreaks. In 2003, Cameroon adopted the integrated disease surveillance and response (IDSR) strategy. We describe cholera surveillance within IDSR-strategy in Cameroon. Data is captured at health facility, forwarded to health district that compiles and directs data to RDPH in paper format. RDPH sends the data to the national level via internet and from there to the WHO. The surveillance system is passive with no data analysis at districts. Thus the goal of IDSR-strategy of data analysis and rapid response at the district has not been met yet.

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