CHALLENGES TO GLOBAL SURVEILLANCE AND RESPONSE TO INFECTIOUS DISEASE OUTBREAKS OF INTERNATIONAL IMPORTANCE

This article presents a notional scheme of global surveillance and response to infectious disease outbreaks and reviews 14 in-ternational surveillance and response programs. In combination, the scheme and the programs illustrate how, in an ideal world and in the real world, infectious disease outbreaks of public health significance could be detected and contained. No-table practices and achievements of the programs are cited; these may be useful when instituting new programs or redesign-ing existing ones. Insufficiencies are identified in four critical areas: health infrastructure; scientific methods and concepts of operation; essential human, technical, and financial resources; and international policies. These insufficiencies challenge global surveillance of and response to infectious disease outbreaks of international importance. This article is intended to help policymakers appreciate the complexity of the problem and assess the impact and cost-effectiveness of proposed solu-tions. An assessment of the potential contribution of appropriate diagnostic tests to surveillance and response is included. THE EMERGENCE OF NEW INFECTIOUS DISEASES and theresurgence of diseases previously controlled by vacci-nation and treatment are creating unprecedented public health challenges. Recent disease outbreaks of Sudden Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), multidrug-resistant tuberculosis, Ebola viral hemorrhagic fever, West Nile viral encephalitis, intentional anthrax, and H5N1 viral infec