chapter 17 public health surveillance

disease surveillance

ongoing systematic collection, analysis, interpretation, and dissemination of specific health data for use in public health.

surveillance systems

also used to monitor emerging infections, bioterrorism outbreaks, and chemical terrorism

reported diseases by clinicians, agencies and labs, vital records, EHR, surveys etc

what are some data sources for surveillance

passive system- most common one

case reports are sent to local health departments by health care providers (i.e., physicians, nurses), or laboratory reports of disease occurrence are sent to the local health department.

active system

the nurse In the health department may begin a search for cases through contacts with local health providers and health care agencies.

sentinel system

monitors key health events when information is not otherwise available or in vulnerable populations to calculate or estimate disease morbidity

special systems

developed for collecting particular types of data and may be a combination of active, passive, and/or sentinel systems

NSSP (national syndrome surveillance program)

promotes timely exchange and monitoring of syndromic data (client encounters from ER’s, urgent cares, ambulatory care, and inpatient health care settings, as well as lab & pharmacy data 

syndromic surveillance system

as a result of bioterrorism, these newer systems are being developed to monitor illness syndromes or events.

endemic

usual disease presence in a population, baseline

hyperendemic

disease is constantly present at high levels in a population

sporadic

infrequent/irregular pattern with no apparent common source of transmission

epidemic

excess levels for given time; outbreak

pandemic

spread to several countries

-covid

holoendemic

prevalence decreases as age increases

common outbreak

a group of persons are all exposed to an infectious agent or toxin from the same source

point outbreak

all persons exposed become ill at the same time, during one incubation period (all ate same contaminated food at a wedding reception

mixed outbreak

a victim of a common source epidemic has person-to-person contact with others and spreads the disease, further propagating the problem (as in spreading the flu)

intermittent or continuous outbreak

cases may be exposed over a period of days or weeks, as in recent food poisonings at a restaurant chain throughout the U.S.

propagated outbreak

no common source and spreads gradually from person-to-person over more than 1 incubation period, such as spread of TB from one person to another 

Infectivity

ability to enter host & produce infection/disease

pathogenicity

those infected who actually develop disease

virulence

those with clinical disease who become severely ill or die

infectivity, pathogenicity and virulence

what things should be considered as causes of outbreaks are from the epidemiologic triangle