Challenges to Global Surveillance and Response to Infectious Disease Outbreaks of International Importance
- 1 September 2007
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Mary Ann Liebert Inc in Biosecurity and Bioterrorism: Biodefense Strategy, Practice, and Science
- Vol. 5 (3) , 206-227
- https://doi.org/10.1089/bsp.2007.0041
Abstract
This article presents a notional scheme of global surveillance and response to infectious disease outbreaks and reviews 14 international surveillance and response programs. In combination, the scheme and the programs illustrate how, in an ideal world and in the real world, infectious disease outbreaks of public health significance could be detected and contained. Notable practices and achievements of the programs are cited; these may be useful when instituting new programs or redesigning existing ones. Insufficiencies are identified in four critical areas: health infrastructure; scientific methods and concepts of operation; essential human, technical, and financial resources; and international policies. These insufficiencies challenge global surveillance of and response to infectious disease outbreaks of international importance. This article is intended to help policymakers appreciate the complexity of the problem and assess the impact and cost-effectiveness of proposed solutions. An assessment of the potential contribution of appropriate diagnostic tests to surveillance and response is included.Keywords
This publication has 35 references indexed in Scilit:
- Oslo Ministerial Declaration—global health: a pressing foreign policy issue of our timeThe Lancet, 2007
- Global Public Health Surveillance under New International Health RegulationsEmerging Infectious Diseases, 2006
- Strategies for mitigating an influenza pandemicNature, 2006
- Human Influenza Surveillance: the Demand to ExpandEmerging Infectious Diseases, 2006
- ProMED-mail: An Early Warning System for Emerging DiseasesClinical Infectious Diseases, 2004
- If Syndromic Surveillance Is the Answer, What Is the Question?Biosecurity and Bioterrorism: Biodefense Strategy, Practice, and Science, 2003
- The Emerging Science of Very Early Detection of Disease OutbreaksJournal of Public Health Management & Practice, 2001
- Using Nurse Hot Line Calls for Disease SurveillanceEmerging Infectious Diseases, 1998
- ProMED global monitoring of emerging diseases: design for a demonstration programHealth Policy, 1996
- Polio Eradication From the Western HemisphereAnnual Review of Public Health, 1992