Public Health II - lectures

Surveillance of Infections. Pandemic Plans.

ANNOTATION


Surveillance and early warning

In recent decades, rates of infectious diseases have generally either fallen or remained stable in the EU. The majority of deaths in EU countries are now due to non-infectious diseases such as cancer and cardiovascular disease. However, infectious diseases can still bring serious challenges to public health as the coronavirus pandemic has shown us. In our globalised world, diseases can spread very quickly from one country to another.

The early detection of health threats requires continuous robust surveillance and mechanisms for early warning and response. The EU has set up structures to enable the fast exchange of information among Member States public health authorities and global bodies such as the World Health Organization, to detect a threat as early as possible.

Surveillance systems provide information for monitoring communicable disease trends, helping to identify risk factors, and areas for intervention. They provide information for priority setting, planning, implementation and resource allocation for preventive programmes and for evaluating preventive programmes and control measures.

 of the European Parliament and the Council of 22 October 2013 on serious cross-border threats to health. This new Decision revived the network for the epidemiological surveillance of communicable diseases and related special health issues.

The Commission adopted an Implementing Decision in June 2018, updating the list of around 50 infectious diseases monitored through the EU’s epidemiological surveillance network. This new list includes communicable diseases that have recently emerged or re-emerged, such as Chikungunya, Dengue, Lyme neuroborreliosis and Zika infections.  

A pandemic plan is a documented strategy for how an organization plans to provide essential services when there is a widespread outbreak of an infectious disease. When a pandemic spreads and a high percentage of a company's employees are sick at the same time, it can negatively affect the company's ability to carry out essential services.

Pandemic planning in the news

Pandemic planning received renewed global attention with the emergence and spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19) in late 2019. As with epidemics and pandemics throughout history, the COVID-19 outbreak has raised healthcare, business and governmental policy questions that affect the world´s economy.

AIMS OF THE LECTURE


After studying this lesson students will  be able to:

  • Define public health surveillance
  • List the essential activities of surveillance
  • Explain The Early Warning and Response Systém (EWRS)
  • Explain Pandemic preparedness – general principles
  • Understand the ECHI (European Core Health Indicators) data tool

SYLLABUS


  1. Definition of surveillance of infectious diseases
  2. Terminology and definitions
  3. Case definition
  4. Diseases trends
  5. The Early Warning and Response Systém (EWRS)
  6. European Medicines Agency
  7. EU cros-border action
  8. Pandemic preparedness 

Study materials:




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