Surveillance, risk assessment and response
seCTIon 3: foCUs aReas and aCTIons
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IBS is the systemaic collecion and analysis of imely, reliable and appropriate data on priority diseases, syndromes and condiions. Data collecion follows a predeined
format and includes speciic case or syndrome deiniions. Data reporing and analysis occur regularly, typically once a week, and alert or epidemic thresholds are oten used
to idenify outbreaks. IBS aims at outbreak detecion, monitoring of disease trends and disease control programmes and programme planning. Use of appropriate informaion
and communicaion technology ICT tools may aid in improving the quality of collecion and collaion of surveillance data at the naional and local levels.
Risk assessment is a systemaic process for gathering, assessing and documening informaion to assign a level of risk for a potenial public health event. This enables
objecive evidence-based decisions while giving consideraion to the uncertainies and limitaions of the informaion available at a paricular point in ime. It involves
understanding the idenity and character of a hazard and evaluaing the risk of an adverse outcome in a populaion following exposure to that hazard. The process can
also assess the risk associated with potenial intervenion measures. During an event, risk assessment is an ongoing process, not a one-ime acivity.
Rapid response capacity in this context refers to the ability to mobilize a rouine and rapid invesigaion of and response to public health events at naional and local levels.
This includes development and deployment of rapid response teams RRTs to any level in the public health sector.
IBS and EBS are complementary and both are essenial components of naional surveillance systems. Surveillance informaion is used to help risk assessment, which in turn informs
public health acions. Surveillance, risk assessment and response oten require efecive mulilevel, mulidisciplinary and mulisectoral coordinaion.
APSED 2010 provides a framework for Member States to create a robust system of surveillance, risk assessment
and response that includes the above interlinked components, as described in Figure 3.1.
The surveillance and response system should be sensiive and broad enough to allow detecion of other public health events, including non-infecious disease events e.g.
chemical and food safety-related events and lexible enough to be adapted to special situaions e.g. mass gatherings, natural disasters. The surveillance and response prioriies
of each country should be informed through risk mapping so that any ideniied needs can be met.
FET has proved invaluable in establishing naional capaciies for early detecion, prompt invesigaion and efecive response to public health events. FET focuses on learning
by doing in a work seing and building competencies applicable to emerging disease outbreaks and other public health events.