Surveillance, risk assessment and

16 STRATEGIC FRAMEWORK FOR WHO TECHNICAL AND COUNTRY WORK: GeTTInG THe RIGHT foCUs

3.1 Surveillance, risk assessment and response

Surveillance, risk assessment and outbreak response capacity is a prerequisite for efecive management of emerging disease outbreaks and other acute public health events. Efecive naional surveillance systems generate reliable informaion for imely risk assessment that informs rapid public health acions.

3.1.1 Key components

The key components required for an efecive system of surveillance, risk assessment and response at the naional and local levels are: • event-based surveillance EBS; • indicator-based surveillance IBS; • risk assessment capacity; • rapid response capacity; • ield epidemiology training FET. EBS is the organized and rapid capture of informaion about events that are a potenial risk to public health. Informaion may be found in internet-accessible informaion sources such as news media sites, disease reporing networks, and other ad hoc reports transmited through formal and informal channels. EBS can provide near real-ime data on potenial and conirmed disease outbreaks and other public health events, including events related to the occurrence of disease in humans, such as clusters of cases of disease and events related to potenial human exposure e.g. diseases and deaths in animals, contaminated food or water, and environmental hazards, including chemical, radiological and nuclear events. Figure 3.1 Surveillance, risk assessment and response framework Indicator-based Surveillance Routine reporting of cases of disease, including: • notiiable disease surveillance systems • sentinel surveillance • laboratory-based surveillance Commonly: • Health care facility-based reporting • Weekly, monthly reporting Indicator-based Surveillance Routine reporting of cases of disease, including: • notiiable disease surveillance systems • sentinel surveillance • laboratory-based surveillance Commonly: • Health care facility-based reporting • Weekly, monthly reporting Event-based Surveillance Rapid detection, reporting, conirmation and assessment of public health events including: • clusters of disease • rumours of unexplained deaths Commonly: • Immediate reporting Event-based Surveillance Rapid detection, reporting, conirmation and assessment of public health events including: • clusters of disease • rumours of unexplained deaths Commonly: • Immediate reporting Response Linked to surveillance National and subnational capacity to respond to alerts Response Linked to surveillance National and subnational capacity to respond to alerts Risk Assessment