The Role of Community-based Surveillance in Global Health Security

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Join the USAID Infectious Disease Detection and Surveillance (IDDS) project’s latest webinar, which will feature global perspectives on community-based surveillance (CBS) within pandemic preparedness and response efforts, highlighting Mali’s approaches to integrating CBS into the health system, and elaborating on implementation realities at the community level in Senegal.

CBS is used for early detection of potentially epidemic diseases through reporting by community members. CBS enables the systematic detection and reporting of events of public health significance at the source. CBS uses two strategies: monitoring of indicators in the form of community case definitions to identify diseases (indicator-based surveillance), and reporting of unusual events that represent an acute risk to human health (event-based surveillance). When using the indicator-based approach, countries select specific diseases, such as measles, cholera, polio, and viral hemorrhagic fevers, and conduct surveillance at the community level. 

USAID’s Global Health Security program, through its technical partners, has enhanced surveillance systems for diseases with epidemic and epizootic potential using the One Health approach through community-based surveillance, including event-based surveillance. With the One Health approach, community workers affiliated with human, animal, and environmental sectors look for and report events in their respective communities.

Speakers

Ochi Akwiwu-Ibe – Overview
Deputy Project Director, IDDS

Doudou Diop – Moderator
Surveillance Lead, IDDS

Etien Luc Koua
Emergency Health Information Management and Risk Assessment Manager
WHO Regional Office for Africa

Yacouba Kone
Head of Division of Disease Surveillance and Response
Ministry of Health, Mali

Ngone Diop
Community Health Worker
Tambacounda, Senegal

Dorothy Peprah
Senior Global Health Security Agenda Advisor
USAID

Cheryl Kamin
Senior Infectious Disease Advisor
USAID / Alternate Contracting Officer’s Representative, IDDS