Notifiable disease surveillance in Sri Lanka and the United Kingdom: a comparative study

Sri Lanka Journal of Bio-medical Informatics Pub Date : 2013-10-15 DOI:10.4038/SLJBMI.V4I1.5190

K. Chandrasekar, S. Mahesan, P. Bath

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引用次数: 10

Abstract

Threats posed by new, emerging or re-emerging infectious diseases are taking a global dimension. These diseases are a leading cause of morbidity and mortality around the world and have an influence on the economic growth and development of nations. Several evaluation studies on existing infectious disease surveillance systems (passive and/or active) have been undertaken to identify the strengths and weaknesses in order to improve surveillance activities. Research is also directed towards identifying specific factors that influence the information flow in the notification process of infectious diseases at different levels, such as completeness, timeliness, sensitivity, etc. Studies reported from Sri Lanka and the United Kingdom are very limited. Further, we rarely find any literature on comparative studies on disease surveillance systems in two different geographical locations. In this study in-depth, semi-structured interviews were conducted to collect data, in Jaffna (Sri Lanka) and Sheffield (UK). Participants were recruited from those who were engaged in work related to the notifiable disease surveillance system at a local level. This research paper reports the advantages and disadvantages of the existing notifiable disease surveillance systems in the United Kingdom and Sri Lanka. In addition, it recommends that receiving notifications from various other sources (including indigenous medical practitioners, public health workers, laboratories and the general public), involvement of laboratories in disease surveillance activities, and computerising the existing surveillance system for notification would enhance the completeness and timeliness of reporting. In addition to epidemiological publications at national level, this study emphasises the importance of regional publications on notifiable disease surveillance. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.4038/sljbmi.v4i1.5190 Sri Lanka Journal of Bio-Medical Informatics 2013; 4 (1):14-22

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斯里兰卡和英国的法定疾病监测:比较研究

新的、新出现的或再出现的传染病构成的威胁正在成为全球性问题。这些疾病是世界各地发病率和死亡率的主要原因，并对各国的经济增长和发展产生影响。已对现有传染病监测系统(被动和/或主动)进行了几项评价研究，以确定其长处和弱点，以便改进监测活动。研究还旨在确定影响传染病通报过程中不同层次信息流的具体因素，如完整性、及时性、敏感性等。斯里兰卡和联合王国报告的研究非常有限。此外，我们很少发现关于两个不同地理位置的疾病监测系统比较研究的文献。在这项深入的研究中，在贾夫纳(斯里兰卡)和谢菲尔德(英国)进行了半结构化访谈来收集数据。参与者是从地方一级从事与法定疾病监测系统相关工作的人员中招募的。这篇研究论文报告了英国和斯里兰卡现有的法定疾病监测系统的优点和缺点。此外，委员会还建议，接收来自各种其他来源(包括土著医生、公共卫生工作者、实验室和一般公众)的通知，让实验室参与疾病监测活动，并将现有的通报监测系统电脑化，将提高报告的完整性和及时性。除了国家一级的流行病学出版物外，本研究还强调了关于法定疾病监测的区域出版物的重要性。DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.4038/sljbmi.v4i1.5190斯里兰卡生物医学信息学杂志2013;4 (1): 14-22

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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Sri Lanka Journal of Bio-medical Informatics

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