Introduction

What happens in a surveillance system?

Definition

Public health surveillance is the systematic and ongoing collection, collation and analysis of data for public health purposes and the timely dissemination of public health information for assessment and public health response as necessary. 1

Other surveillance systems

  1. Neighbourhood surveillance (People watching other people)
  2. Rhizomatic surveillance (Unkown actors watching secretly)
  3. Top-down-surveillance (State actors watching their people)

Objectives

Objective Description
Action for cases guidance/quarantine/isolation
Action for groups lockdown/school closings
Action for medical professionals substitute antibiotic in response to antibiotic resistance
Action for the comminity mask, voluntary social distancing
Detect and alert Serves as an early warning system for impending public health emergencies
Evaluate Documents the impact of an intervention, or track progress towards specified goals
Describe Monitors and clarify the epidemiology of health problems
Inform Allows priorities to be set and to inform public health policy and strategies

Example: Decision to lockdown on 28th of October 2020, Germany

Picture taken from “Täglicher Lagebericht des RKI zur Coronavirus-Krankheit-2019 (COVID-19) 21.10.2020”