Surveillance, outbreak detection, and early warning

Abstract

Public health surveillance is important for outbreak detection and overall health security. An agile surveillance system can prevent the escalation of an outbreak locally and potentially prevent a pandemic. Over the years, humankind has encountered outbreaks of various scales with varying impacts, and improvements have been made to disease surveillance systems to detect outbreaks early and enable a timely response. An effective and functional disease surveillance system requires actors at many different levels—community, sub-national, national, regional, and international—to perform their roles and responsibilities. However, this is not without challenges, and resources are needed to sustain and streamline surveillance efforts. Trust within and between countries is critical for the sharing of surveillance information for global health security. To further enhance and strengthen disease surveillance against the changing dynamics of infectious diseases, more coordination and multi-sectoral partnerships are required.