Oh No! Disease Outbreak? What Should We Do?

In scenario 3 entitled “A Poultry Worker”, it’s stated that a doctor suspected a poultry worker was infected by a serious viral disease, and might spread out to the community. As a result, he reported the case to the municipal health agency. The agency then performed outbreak and pandemic preparedness measures with a view to handle the worst case scenario. Hence, I will share more about what we, as health workers should do during an outbreak.

First and foremost, we have to collect information on a specific disease or other health-related event systematically. There are 3 types of data collection: universal case, sentinel and laboratory-based reporting. Sources of data include mortality or morbidity reports, individual case investigations, laboratory utilization reports, special surveys, information on animal reservoirs and vectors, demographic data and environmental data. These data can be obtained from the public and health care providers.

Next, the data will be analyzed and interpreted by the health agencies. The information is then disseminated to the public to reduce morbidity and mortality resulting in the improvement of health. The ongoing systematic collection, analysis, interpretation, and dissemination of data regarding a health related event for use in public health action is what we term as Surveillance.

A surveillance system is an information loop or cycle that involves: healthcare providers, public health agencies and the public.

However, there are still some problems with the surveillance system in Indonesia. For example, the data collection is not systematically done, thus the processing of data into useful information can’t be achieved.

In conclusion, surveillance is the collection of data relevant to public health, which can then be analysed to guide action or responses for prevention and treatment programmes. Therefore, data should be collected systematically, so that it can be analysed and converted into information.

References:

1. Surveillance, Response and the Role of Health Informatics, dr. Luthfan Lazuardi