Syndromic Surveillance of Infectious Diseases

Abstract

Definition of the Subject Infectious diseases continue to present major challenges throughout the world. Since the spread of infectious diseases occurs irrespective of geographic boundaries, they place at risk both individuals and populations [1]. Optimal surveillance is paramount for the detection and the combat against infectious diseases. Several types of surveillance can be applied to follow infectious diseases. They include the traditional form of surveillance which rely on the report of notifiable diseases by clinicians and clinical laboratories and syndromic surveillance [2]. Syndromic surveillance is an exploratory method in which disease indicators can be retrieved through automated data acquisition, analysis, and the generation of statistical signals [2]. These signals are monitored in real-time or near real-time in order to detect disease outbreaks earlier and more comprehensively than with traditional public health approaches [2]. Syndromic surveillance follows patterns of disease and can detect changes in illness data [3]. Syndromic surveillance utilizes nonspecific clinical data, administrative data, and web-based data (Fig. 1). In order to generate relevant data, syndromes, diagnoses, or key terms are selected (Fig. 1). For example, influenza-like illness (ILI)