Public health surveillance

Public health surveillance is the ongoing, systematic collection, analysis, interpretation, and sharing of health data to guide public health action.

Case definition: A set of criteria used to classify whether a person has a particular disease or health condition. Consistent criteria make cases countable and comparable across places and time.
Epidemiology: The study of the distribution and determinants of health and disease in populations. Surveillance supplies recurring population data for epidemiologic study and action.
Influenza surveillance: The monitoring of influenza activity through clinical, laboratory, and population data. It combines several data streams to track seasonal and unusual flu activity.
Public health ethics: The ethical analysis of actions and policies aimed at protecting or improving population health. Surveillance must balance collective benefit against individual rights and burdens.
Notifiable disease: A disease that health professionals or laboratories are legally required to report to public health authorities. Mandatory reports provide a routine stream of cases for surveillance.
Incidence: The occurrence of new cases of a condition in a population over a specified period. New-case rates help distinguish rising transmission from a large existing burden.
Wastewater-based epidemiology: The use of wastewater measurements to estimate health-related exposures or conditions in a contributing population. Wastewater can reveal community infection trends without relying on individual testing.
Privacy: The ability of individuals to control access to information about themselves and their lives. Health data collection can expose sensitive information if safeguards are weak.
Syndromic surveillance: The analysis of symptom patterns and other early indicators to detect possible health events before diagnoses are confirmed. It can reveal emerging outbreaks before laboratory confirmation arrives.
Prevalence: The proportion of a population that has a condition at a specified time or during a period. Prevalence describes how much illness surveillance finds in a population.

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