INFECTIOUS DISEASE SURVEILLANCE ANDOUTBREAK MANAGEMENT

Abstract

Increasing density of human mobility, climate change, uncontrolled urbanization, and increasingly close interactions between humans, animals, and the environment have reshaped the threat of infectious diseases in the 21st century. A case of infection that appears at a single geographical point can now turn into a public health emergency that troubles the world in just a matter of weeks, as demonstrated by the COVID-19 pandemic and, on a more limited scale, and the transnational spread of mpox demonstrated on a smaller scale (Putri, 2024). Therefore, the surveillance of infectious diseases is no longer just a routine administrative task hidden in health services. It is the early warning system, which determines whether the healthcare service can withstand a threat that comes without warning.

Health surveillance is conceptually understood as the systematic and continuous collection, processing, analysis, and interpretation of data, along with the dissemination of information to those who need it so that immediate action can be taken (Hall et al., 2012). For the World Health Organization (WHO), surveillance involves more than just passive collection of numbers. It is an active cycle that leads to action: detecting extraordinary events (KLB), tracking transmission trends, assessing the effectiveness of control programs, and providing information for evidence-based decision-making (Heryana, 2015). Once the feedback function fails, the surveillance data becomes nothing more than a statistical archive, which is not capable of saving lives.