Origins and progress in surveillance systems

Abstract

The origins of public health surveillance can be traced to Hippocrates, who is credited with observing, recording, and collecting facts and then analyzing them to inform reasonable courses of action. However, infectious disease surveillance, now a core function of public health, began as a reactive response to specific problems in community health. In this chapter, we trace infectious disease surveillance development throughout the world, including its expansion to encompass direct responsibility for control activities. Our review is focused around the purposes and uses of infectious disease surveillance systems. Purposes include assessing public health status, tracking conditions of public health importance, defining public health priorities, evaluating programs, and stimulating public health research. Uses include monitoring the natural history of conditions, detecting epidemics, detecting changes in etiologic agents, displaying patterns in distribution and spread of disease, documenting the effect of interventions and policies, evaluating control and prevention measures, documenting changes in medical practice, and aiding allocation of resources. This edition first published 2013 © 2007, 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.