Updating the technical guidelines for Integrated Disease Surveillance and Response in the African Region

Changing epidemiologic profiles in African countries led African Ministries of Health to increase attention on the burden of non-communicable diseases. Additionally, the growing threat of infectious diseases in a globalized world resulted in International Health Regulations (2005) calling for strengthened core surveillance and response capacities for detecting and responding to public health events. Due to the IHR (2005) requirements and emerging priorities for strengthened surveillance systems in African countries, the World Health Organization (WHO) collaborated with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the U.S. Agency for International Development‘s (USAID) Africa 2010 Project to update the Technical Guidelines for Integrated Disease Surveillance and Response (IDSR), a tool for guiding the strengthening of surveillance systems. The systematic revision involved expanding the list of priority diseases and conditions, elaborating surveillance requirements for each of them, and aligning new recommendations within the IDSR framework. The revised IDSR Technical Guidelines (2010) include: (1) Surveillance guidelines for the additional 27 diseases and conditions to guide collection of data on non-communicable diseases and events of public health concern. (2) Updated tools for preparedness and response such as recommended stock lists for outbreak response, laboratory supplies, and personal protective equipment. (3) Guidance for creating case definitions for community-based surveillance. (4) Surveillance system monitoring and evaluation indicators including performance indicators for each level of the health system. Subject matter experts from African Ministries of Health and key health organizations provided technical review. The revised IDSR Technical guidelines are published in English, French and Portuguese.