Concepts And Methods In Infectious Disease Surveillance

Infectious disease surveillance has evolved at an extraordinary pace during the past several decades, and continues to do so. It is increasingly used to inform public health practice in addition to its use as a tool for early detection of epidemics. It is therefore crucial that students of public health and epidemiology have a sound understanding of the concepts and principles that underpin modern surveillance of infectious disease. Written by leaders in the field, who have vast hands-on experience in conducting surveillance and teaching applied public health, Concepts and Methods in Infectious Disease Surveillance is comprised of four sections. The first section provides an overview, a description of systems used by public health jurisdictions in the United States and legal considerations for surveillance. The second section presents chapters on major program-area or disease-specific surveillance systems, including those that monitor bacterial infections, foodborne diseases, healthcare-associated infections, and HIV/AIDS. The following section is devoted to methods for conducting surveillance and also approaches for data analysis. A concluding section summarizes communication of surveillance findings, including the use of traditional and social media, in addition to showcasing lessons learned from the New York City Department of Health’s experience in surveillance and epidemiology training. This comprehensive new book covers major topics at an introductory to intermediate level, and will be an excellent resource for instructors. Suitable for use in graduate level courses in public health, human and veterinary medicine, and in undergraduate programs in public-health-oriented disciplines, Concepts and Methods in Infectious Disease Surveillance is also a useful primer for frontline public health practitioners, hospital epidemiologists, infection control practitioners, laboratorians in public health settings, infectious disease researchers, and medical and public health informaticians interested in a concise overview of infectious disease surveillance.

This fully updated edition of Infectious Disease Surveillance is for frontline public health practitioners, epidemiologists, and clinical microbiologists who are engaged in communicable disease control. It is also a foundational text for trainees in public health, applied epidemiology, postgraduate medicine and nursing programs. The second edition portrays both the conceptual framework and practical aspects of infectious disease surveillance. It is a comprehensive resource designed to improve the tracking of infectious diseases and to serve as a starting point in the development of new surveillance systems. Infectious Disease Surveillance includes over 45 chapters from over 100 contributors, and topics organized into six sections based on major themes. Section One highlights the critical role surveillance plays in public health and it provides an overview of the current International Health Regulations (2005) in addition to successes and challenges in infectious disease eradication. Section Two describes surveillance systems based on logical program areas such as foodborne illnesses, vector-borne diseases, sexually transmitted diseases, viral hepatitis healthcare and transplantation associated infections. Attention is devoted to programs for monitoring unexplained deaths, agents of bioterrorism, mass gatherings, and disease associated with international travel. Sections Three and Four explore the uses of the Internet and wireless technologies to advance infectious disease surveillance in various settings with emphasis on best practices based on deployed systems. They also address molecular laboratory methods, and statistical and geospatial analysis, and evaluation of systems for early epidemic detection. Sections Five and Six discuss legal and ethical considerations, communication strategies and applied epidemiology-training programs. The rest of the chapters offer public-private partnerships, as well lessons from the 2009-2010 H1N1 influenza pandemic and future directions for infectious disease surveillance.

Early detection is essential to the control of emerging, reemerging, and novel infectious diseases, whether naturally occurring or intentionally introduced. Containing the spread of such diseases in a profoundly interconnected world requires active vigilance for signs of an outbreak, rapid recognition of its presence, and diagnosis of its microbial cause, in addition to strategies and resources for an appropriate and efficient response. Although these actions are often viewed in terms of human public health, they also challenge the plant and animal health communities. Surveillance, defined as "the continual scrutiny of all aspects of occurrence and spread of a disease that are pertinent to effective control", involves the "systematic collection, analysis, interpretation, and dissemination of health data." Disease detection and diagnosis is the act of discovering a novel, emerging, or reemerging disease or disease event and identifying its cause. Diagnosis is "the cornerstone of effective disease control and prevention efforts, including surveillance." Disease surveillance and detection relies heavily on the astute individual: the clinician, veterinarian, plant pathologist, farmer, livestock manager, or agricultural extension agent who notices something unusual, atypical, or suspicious and brings this discovery in a timely way to the attention of an appropriate representative of human public health, veterinary medicine, or agriculture. Most developed countries have the ability to detect and diagnose human, animal, and plant diseases. Global Infectious Disease Surveillance and Detection: Assessing the Challenges-Finding Solutions, Workshop Summary is part of a 10 book series and summarizes the recommendations and presentations of the workshop.

This unique book covers many major disease surveillance systems, drawing on the experiences of leading experts from around the world. Beginning with an overview of the newly revised International Health Regulations from the World Health Organization, the book progresses to explore surveillance systems currently in practice. Examples included are as far ranging as surveillance for antimicrobial-resistant foodborne pathogens, vaccine adverse events, influenza and HIV/AIDS, to communicable disease surveillance during complex emergencies in Iraq and Sudan. Infectious Disease Surveillance also covers the use of modern technologies to track infectious diseases, including molecular epidemiologic techniques and electronic means for data collection and distribution. Other chapters discuss evaluation of surveillance methods, ethical considerations and legal issues. The book concludes with a review of historical lessons learned from the application of surveillance in disease control—for smallpox in the 1970s and for severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in 2003. A comprehensive resource to improve the tracking of infectious diseases Offers perspectives on best practices through examples of a wide variety of surveillance systems from around the globe Acts as a starting point for design of new surveillance systems Serves as an easy reference for key information Designed for frontline public health practitioners engaged in communicable disease control, epidemiologists, clinical microbiologists, and students of public health and epidemiology, this book portrays both the conceptual framework and the practical aspects of infectious disease surveillance.

Hardly a day goes by without news headlines concerning infectious disease threats. Currently the spectre of a pandemic of influenza A|H1N1 is raising its head, and heated debates are taking place about the pro’s and con’s of vaccinating young girls against human papilloma virus. For an evidence-based and responsible communication of infectious disease topics to avoid misunderstandings and overreaction of the public, we need solid scientific knowledge and an understanding of all aspects of infectious diseases and their control. The aim of our book is to present the reader with the general picture and the main ideas of the subject. The book introduces the reader to methodological aspects of epidemiology that are specific for infectious diseases and provides insight into the epidemiology of some classes of infectious diseases characterized by their main modes of transmission. This choice of topics bridges the gap between scientific research on the clinical, biological, mathematical, social and economic aspects of infectious diseases and their applications in public health. The book will help the reader to understand the impact of infectious diseases on modern society and the instruments that policy makers have at their disposal to deal with these challenges. It is written for students of the health sciences, both of curative medicine and public health, and for experts that are active in these and related domains, and it may be of interest for the educated layman since the technical level is kept relatively low.

Computer-based infectious disease surveillance systems are capable of real-time or near real-time detection of serious illnesses and potential bioterrorism agent exposures and represent a major step forward in disease surveillance. Infectious Disease Informatics: Syndromic Surveillance for Public Health and Bio-Defense is an in-depth monograph that analyzes and evaluates the outbreak modeling and detection capabilities of existing surveillance systems under a unified framework, and presents the first book-length coverage of the subject from an informatics-driven perspective. Individual chapters consider the state of the art, including the facilitation of data collection, sharing and transmission; a focus on various outbreak detection methods; data visualization and information dissemination issues; and system assessment and other policy issues. Eight chapters then report on several real-world case studies, summarizing and comparing eight syndromic surveillance systems, including those that have been adopted by many public health agencies (e.g., RODS and BioSense). The book concludes with a discussion of critical issues and challenges, with a look to future directions. This book is an excellent source of current information for researchers in public health and IT. Government public health officials and private-sector practitioners in both public health and IT will find the most up-to-date information available, and students from a variety of disciplines, including public health, biostatistics, information systems, computer science, and public administration and policy will get a comprehensive look at the concepts, techniques, and practices of syndromic surveillance.

An up-to-date and comprehensive treatment of biosurveillance techniques With the worldwide awareness of bioterrorism and drug-resistant infectious diseases, the need for surveillance systems to accurately detect emerging epidemicsis essential for maintaining global safety. Responding to these issues, Disease Surveillance brings together fifteen eminent researchers in the fields of medicine, epidemiology, biostatistics, and medical informatics to define the necessary elements of an effective disease surveillance program, including research, development, implementation, and operations. The surveillance systems and techniques presented in the text are designed to best utilize modern technology, manage emerging public health threats, and adapt to environmental changes. Following a historical overview detailing the need for disease surveillance systems, the text is divided into the following three parts: Part One sets forth the informatics knowledge needed to implement a disease surveillance system, including a discussion of data sources currently used in syndromic surveillance systems. Part Two provides case studies of modern disease surveillance systems, including cases that highlight implementation and operational difficulties as well as the successes experienced by health departments in the United States, Canada, Europe, and Asia. Part Three addresses practical issues concerning the evaluation of disease surveillance systems and the education of future informatics and disease surveillance practitioners. It also assesses how future technology will shape the field of disease surveillance. This book's multidisciplinary approach is ideal for public health professionals who need to understand all the facets within a disease surveillance program and implement the technology needed to support surveillance activities. An outline of the components needed for a successful disease surveillance system combined with extensive use of case studies makes this book well-suited as a textbook for public health informatics courses

This is the first comprehensive text on the methodological issues in epidemiologic research on infectious diseases. It will be an invaluable resource both to students of epidemiology and to established researchers. The authors address such questions as: What needs to be considered when enrolling participants in a study of sexually transmitted diseases? What are common sources of measurement error in population-based studies of respiratory infections? What are some sources of existing data for epidemiologic studies of infectious diseases? Answers to these and many other related questions can be found in this well-organized, comprehensive and authoritative volume - the first to thoroughly address the methodologic issues in conducting epidimiologic research on infectious diseases. The book will be an ideal complement to texts on general epidemiology and infectious disease. An introductory section will make it accessible to a wide variety of disciplines by providing an overview of topics that are foundational to understanding infectious disease epidemiology, such as the immunology of infections, the biology of infectious diseases, and concepts of causation, transmission, and dynamics. The rest of the book is structured around sections on data sources and measurement; methods by transmission type; outbreak investigation and evaluation research; and special topics such as HIV/AIDS research, infections in the elderly, and research collaborations in developing countries.