ARIAtlas.org

Infection can spread quickly in an interconnected world, and the infrastructure to support optimal approaches to diagnoses and surveillance is unavailable in many locations. Barriers to a timely diagnosis can include delays in obtaining test results, lack of supplies or equipment, lack of familiarity with testing protocols, inconvenience, and cost. Global Impact

Surveillance alerts public health authorities to illness surges so that they can act before a new, highly transmissible, or especially dangerous virus spreads to the human population. Global Impact

Laboratory surveillance In a laboratory-based surveillance model, the appropriate authorities are notified if the lab-confirmed diagnosis appears on a list of reportable diseases. Sentinel surveillance This targeted approach draws on data from sentinel sites, typically hospitals, ambulatory settings, or nursing homes, which mirror the general population. Source: ARIAtlas.org, World Lung Foundation 2010 Syndromic surveillance Rather than identify a specific infectious disease, syndromic surveillance gathers information about trends that suggest case spikes or a new outbreak. Zoonotic surveillance Trends in animal diseases may be observed, since many pathogens implicated in human ARIs have been identified previously in animals (especially influenza viruses, which tend to originate in swine and birds).

Actions That Make a Difference Community-based initiatives to improve diagnoses and track the course of an infection include educating family members, arming clinicians with decision-making tools, and developing diagnostic techniques that are feasible in resource-poor environments.

Actions That Make a Difference Two-way communication between clinicians and public health agencies can call attention to unusual patterns of disease. Laboratory diagnoses and reporting should be combined with less resource-intensive surveillance approaches such as sentinel and syndrome surveillance, which can produce data quickly.

As with many ARIs, pertussis often goes undiagnosed. Source: ARIAtlas.org, World Lung Foundation 2010 Sixteen percent of American doctors sampled said they did not test adolescents for pertussis.