Regional event-based surveillance in WHO's Western Pacific Region.

Christopher Lowbridge,May Chiew,Ailan Li,Takuya Yamagishi,Katherine Russel,Babatunde Olowokure

doi:10.5365/wpsar.2018.9.5.009

Abstract

In the World Health Organization’s Western Pacific Region, event-based surveillance has been conducted for more than a decade to rapidly detect and assess public health events. This report describes the establishment and evolution of the Western Pacific Region’s event-based surveillance system and presents an analysis of public health events in the Region. Between July 2008 and June 2017, a total of 2396 events were reported in the Western Pacific Region, an average of 266 events per year. Infectious diseases in humans and animals accounted for the largest proportion of events recorded during this period (73%, 1743 events). Maintaining and strengthening this well established system is critical to support the rapid detection, assessment and response to public health events to sustain regional health security.

Highlights

Non-standardized, being taken from sources such as media reports or community reporting
For more than a decade, the Asia Pacific Strategy for Emerging Diseases (APSED)[6] has guided Member States in the Western Pacific Region as a common framework for building the core capacities described in IHR (2005).[2]
This paper describes the Western Pacific Region’s surveillance a Division of Health Security and Emergencies, World Health Organization Regional Office for the Western Pacific, Manila, Philippines

Summary

Introduction

Non-standardized, being taken from sources such as media reports or community reporting. The Western Pacific Region’s surveillance system uses multiple sources of information, both event-based and indicator-based, for risk assessment and decision-making for responses.[6]. In 2004, WHO’s Regional Office for the Western Pacific established a regional system for EBS, known as rumour surveillance, following the first major emerging infectious disease outbreak of the 21st century: severe acute respiratory syndrome (known as SARS).

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Conclusion