The type of surveillance applied depends on the desired outputs needed to support decision-making. Surveillance data determine the quality of disease status reports and should satisfy information requirements for accurate risk analysis both for international trade as well as for national decision-making. Surveillance of endemic diseases provides valuable information for day-to-day health management and can act as the foundation for detecting outbreaks of exotic disease and demonstrating specific disease freedom.
Surveillance systems described in this chapter should also be used to generate information for decisions on prescribed disease prevention and control programmes. However, the actual strategies for prevention and control are beyond the scope of this chapter on surveillance recommendations.
Having a suitable management strategy to respond to surveillance data is of utmost importance for the successful implementation of surveillance systems.