Disease Surveillance

Disease surveillance is needed during relief operations in order to reduce disease and death among the affected population. Assessing the distribution of disease can help relief programs identify the priority health problems in the affected community, determine the priority health interventions, and determine the extent of damage and capacity of the local infrastructure. This section of the Pakistan Relief Toolkit provides resources on how to conduct rapid disease surveillance in emergency situations. Also see the general disaster relief guides in the Key Resources section of this toolkit.

Health Library for Disasters

No Date | Pan American Health Organization [PAHO]

Health Library for Disasters (English)

Includes more than 650 publications or technical documents, in English, Spanish, and French, on a variety of health subjects related to the preparedness and response to emergencies and disasters, as well as disaster prevention and mitigation.

2006 | World Health Organization [WHO] | 19 p

English

This document was developed by the Communicable Diseases Working Group on Emergencies (CD-WGE) at WHO/HQ. CD-WGE provides technical and operational support on communicable disease control to WHO regional and country offices, ministries of health, other United Nations agencies, and nongovernmental and international organizations.

2005 | Overseas Development Institute. Humanitarian Practice Network [HPN] | 38 p

English

This Network Paper describes the practice and purpose of that branch of epidemiology concerned with population mortality. It sets out the key indicators used to express mortality data, different options for how to measure mortality rates and suggestions for how to assess, interpret and use mortality reports. The paper also discusses the politics of mortality figures.

2004 | World Health Organization [WHO] | 10 p

English

Includes information on risk factors, epidemiology for various diseases, and interventions.

[read more >]

Emergency Publications on CD

2004 | Water, Engineering and Development Centre [WEDC]

English

This pc compact disk comprises the electronic (pdf) files of the entire series of Emergency publications produced by WEDC to date. This is an invaluable and handy resource for all aid and development workers. Controlling and Preventing Disease Erik Rottier and Margaret Ince

[read more >]

Controlling and preventing disease

2003 | Water, Engineering and Development Centre [WEDC] | 292 p

English

Improving health is one of the main goals of water and environmental sanitation (WES) interventions. Despite this, many aid and development workers may have only a limited knowledge of the infections they try to prevent. Although the relevant information does exist, it is often scattered in specialised literature and rarely finds its way into the field.

2002 | International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies | 40 p

Reducing Household Vulnerability to HIV&AIDS and Other Infectious Diseases (English)

This document presents the International Federation's global programme to help households build up their response to HIV/AIDS and other infectious diseases. Its aim is to help National Societies to situate themselves in the global Red Cross Red Crescent response, to prioritize and to bring to their attention the opportunities that exist to learn and develop.

1997 | World Health Organization [WHO] | 80 p

Tuberculosis Control in Refugees Situations: An Interagency Field Manual (English)

This Manual is intended to inform operational agencies, donor agencies and field managers of the issues related to TB control in refugee situations. The Manual will serve as a tool in the implementation, monitoring and evaluation of TB control programmes in refugee situations.

1994 | World Health Organization [WHO] | 104 p

English

The initial phase of a major emergency is crucial for the survival of victims and for determining the future path of assistance to the stricken community. Many organizations from within and outside the affected country send teams to assess the emergency situation and determine the kind of response required to relieve human suffering. The absence of a common, standardized technical tool for damage and needs assessment in this initial phase may result in contradictory information being channelled to national and international humanitarian agencies.

[read more >]