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SURVEILLANCE
The NICD is continuously analysing and interpreting data collected from laboratories and research, and providing feedback to all relevant parties.
There is a growing emphasis on the importance of laboratory-based surveillance in all countries across the globe, due to the potential for the rapid international transmission of emerging infections.
The NICD supports the core capacity for surveillance in International Health Regulations (HR) by the 58th World Health Assembly held on 23 May 2005. These regulations outline the capabilities required by all countries to identify and respond to potential health threats.
Our laboratory-based surveillance covers a number of communicable diseases, such as:
- Epidemic-prone diseases, to facilitate early outbreak identification and implement control measures on diseases such as Meningococcal disease, Typhoid, Shigellosis and Viral Hemorrhagic Fevers (VHF).
- Vaccine-preventable diseases, to monitor the success of national vaccine programmes and guide priorities in the introduction of new vaccines on diseases such as Polio, Measles, Haemophilus Influenzae and Streptococcus pneumoniae.
- Disease-targeted for eradication or elimination, to monitor the quality of clinical surveillance systems in place, and to ensure compliance with international standards for surveillance on diseases such as Polio and Measles.
- Opportunistic infections, such as those associated with HIV which have the possibility of creating incorrect statistics related to AIDS-related infections. Infections such as Cryptococcus spp, pneumoniae and invasive Salmonella spp.