Monitoring of communicable diseases and pathogens

-Automatic translation

The Chief Epidemiologist monitors diseases and pathogens that can cause epidemics and threaten public health. The monitoring covers infectious diseases, pathogens, health threats from toxic and radioactive substances, and other unexpected events.

The purpose of monitoring:

• Discovering epidemics and group infections

• Identifying the origin and nature of epidemics and group infections and taking action

• Monitoring the spread and development of diseases/pathogens over time

• Identifying risk groups for selected diseases by, e.g. age, gender, location, behaviour, and origin

• A key element in policy planning regarding the diseases and pathogens included in the monitoring.

• Assessing the impact of preventive measures such as education, vaccination, and official disease prevention measures

• Monitoring antibiotic resistance

• Identifying new, unexpected pathogens or changes in the activity of known pathogens

• To raise research questions and encourage research in this area.

The Chief Epidemiologist shall, by law, maintain registers of all communicable diseases subject to registration and notification. Diseases that may threaten the public interest are subject to mandatory reporting and must be notified to the Chief Epidemiologist immediately.

Monitoring syndrome

Syndromic surveillance has increased over the past few years, but many reported diseases are syndromes that are useful to monitor.

An example of a syndrome is influenza-like symptoms, which surveillance was necessary during the pandemic and continues to be in the surveillance of annual influenza outbreaks. By monitoring syndromes, new and unexpected diseases can also be detected.

The Chief Epidemiologist's monitoring is also unconventional and can involve following up on stories about illness in the community.

The Chief Epidemiologist is involved in European Union Monitoring, ECDC.