For dengue scenario:
1. How can surveillance help to detect and control the disease?
– Surveillance helps detect dengue by monitoring trends and signals of dengue cases in the target area, resulting in an appropriate response when any change is found, e.g. increasing acute febrile illness suggesting dengue infection. It not only helps in early detection and outbreak response, but also helps evaluate the interventions after they are implemented to control the spread of dengue.
2. Should we conduct active or passive surveillance or both for the disease, why?
– We should conduct both for dengue where appropriate. Passive surveillance should be used for routine monitoring in health centers since it requires fewer resources. Active surveillance should be added during the outbreak or peak season or clusters to help collect more detailed information for further intervention and control.
3. Which method should be best to identify cases, why?
Cases in medical facilities VS community
Sentinel VS population-based surveillance
Case-based VS aggregated surveillance
Syndromic VS laboratory-confirmed surveillance
– While it should depend on context, objectives, and available resources. I am not sure about this objective of best identifying CASES (which can be done with case-based medical centers, sentinel coverage, and a lab-confirmed approach).
However, if based on dengue surveillance in limited-resource settings but still aiming for effective disease control, the most appropriate approach could be medical facility-based, population-aggregated, and syndromic-confirmed surveillance.
Medical facility-based method is practical since most clinically significant dengue cases will eventually present at health centers, while the community-based method costs more. For public health control, identifying asymptomatic cases is less critical since the preventive measures can be applied when a signal of the outbreak is detected.
In terms of scope and coverage, population-based surveillance can be used to identify the high-risk area. Aggregated method are suitable for continuous routine surveillance since it is cheaper, while case-based methods can be used during outbreak clusters for detailed investigation.
Lastly, syndromic approach is fast and appropriate for early warning and timely response, with laboratory confirmation that can be added on a subset of cases to verify and provide more detail.
4. What dissemination tools will you choose to disseminate monkeypox surveillance information? Why do you choose this/these tools?
– For dissemination of Mpox surveillance information, I would prioritize real-time dissemination tools because the disease requires rapid alert and awareness among health professionals and public health authorities. Periodic dissemination tools can be used later for formal documentation, trend monitoring, and reporting and evaluating the interventions
