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. 2004 Mar;4(3):171-7.
doi: 10.1016/S1473-3099(04)00942-9.

Role of a sentinel surveillance system in the context of global surveillance of infectious diseases

Isao Arita  1 , Miyuki Nakane, Kazunobu Kojima, Namiko Yoshihara, Takashi Nakano, Ahmed El-Gohary
Affiliations

Role of a sentinel surveillance system in the context of global surveillance of infectious diseases

Isao Arita et al. Lancet Infect Dis. 2004 Mar.

Erratum in

  • Lancet Infect Dis. 2004 Aug;4(8):533

Abstract

In some nation states, sustained integrated global epidemiological surveillance has been weakened as a result of political unrest, disinterest, and a poorly developed infrastructure due to rapidly increasing global inequality. The emergence of severe acute respiratory syndrome has shown vividly the importance of sensitive worldwide surveillance. The Agency for Cooperation in International Health, a Japanese non-governmental organisation, has developed on a voluntary basis a sentinel surveillance system for selected target infectious diseases, covering South America, Africa, and Asia. The system has uncovered unreported infectious diseases of international importance including cholera, plague, and influenza; current trends of acute flaccid paralysis surveillance in polio eradication; and prevalence of HIV, syphilis, hepatitis B, and hepatitis C in individual areas covered by the sentinels. Despite a limited geographical coverage, the system seems to supplement disease information being obtained by global surveillance. Further development of this sentinel surveillance system would be desirable to contribute to current global surveillance efforts, for which, needless to say, national surveillance and alert system takes principal responsibility.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Map of sentinel distribution (as of December 2003).
Figure 2
Figure 2
Reported cholera outbreak by AGSnet sentinels and by WHO in 2000 and 2001.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Global surveillance of communicable diseases: network of networks. *Including AGSnet. Adapted from a WHO original.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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