surveillance in a provincial public health unit from rashes to...

Surveillance in a Provincial

Public Health Unit – from

Rashes to Rarities

Phil Shoemack

Medical Officer of Health

March 2010

Surveillance: Information for

Action

relevance

accuracy

completeness

timeliness

turning the data into information....

BOP S.Chester cases

0

1

2

3

4

510/1

0/0

7

17/1

0/0

7

24/1

0/0

7

31/1

0/0

7

07/1

1/0

7

14/1

1/0

7

21/1

1/0

7

28/1

1/0

7

05/1

2/0

7

12/1

2/0

7

19/1

2/0

7

26/1

2/0

7

02/0

1/0

8

09/0

1/0

8

16/0

1/0

8

23/0

1/0

8

Date of onset

No

. o

f cases

Tauranga, Non-premise X Premise X No BOP connection at all Uncertain BOP link

Range of Surveillance Data

“environmental scanning”: living in and

knowing the community/local knowledge

anecdotal reports from members of the

public, government and non-

government agencies

formal reporting systems and analyses

Active and Passive

active : e.g. monitoring of water quality

passive : e.g. food complaint reporting

Each has its place....

The Ecology of Health; Everything

is Related

Personal hygiene and its potential impact

on food safety and water quality

quality of drinking water, recreational

water, and food premises and the risk of

food and waterborne infections

land use patterns and the quality of

drinking water and recreational water

Agreement Needed

definitions for „case‟ or „event‟

thresholds for action

what actions to take

ideally national guidelines

And so....

Comprehensive surveillance is

always going to be a worthwhile,

but probably unachievable, goal