Open AccessResponding to the Pandemic: Challenges With Public Health Surveillance Systems and Development of a COVID-19 National Surveillance Case Definition to Support Case-Based Morbidity Surveillance During the Early Response
Author(s) -
Janet Hamilton,
Kathryn Turner,
Meredith Lichtenstein Cone
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
journal of public health management and practice
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.771
H-Index - 50
eISSN - 1550-5022
pISSN - 1078-4659
DOI - 10.1097/phh.0000000000001299
Subject(s) - public health , pandemic , public health surveillance , coronavirus , covid-19 , disease surveillance , notifiable disease , environmental health , pneumonia , epidemiology , medicine , disease , medical emergency , infectious disease (medical specialty) , pathology
Responding to introductions of diseases and conditions of unknown etiology is a critical public health function. In late December 2019, investigation of a cluster of pneumonia cases of unknown origin in Wuhan, China, resulted in the identification of a novel coronavirus, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Multiple public health surveillance actions were rapidly implemented to detect introduction of the virus into the United States and track its spread including establishment of a national surveillance case definition and addition of the disease, coronavirus disease 2019, to the list of nationally notifiable conditions. Challenges in conducting effective case-based surveillance and the public health data supply chain and infrastructure are discussed.