Description of the situation
24 April 1997
Disease Outbreak Reported
WHO/EMC is currently working on a manual for WHO Recommended Surveillance Standards in the field of communicable disease surveillance. The manual is being produced jointly by 11 WHO Divisions and Programmes, as well as UNAIDS, in order to bring together, in a common format, all WHO recommended standards for surveillance of communicable diseases.
Comments from the various WHO programmes involved and from WHO Regional Offices are currently being incorporated. The final draft is expected by the end of May 1997 and the first version ready for distribution in June.
The manual is not intended to replace existing technical guidelines or to be an exhaustive description of surveillance of all diseases but to be a handy reference for key elements of surveillance.
For each disease or syndrome there is a description of recommended diagnostic methods, case definitions, types of surveillance, minimum data elements, data analyses and principal uses of data for decision making. In addition the relevant WHO contact(s) are included with contact details. ICD-10 codes are provided for standardisation of reporting and international data exchange.