POST 00772E : EXPANSION OF AFP SURVEILLANCE

POST 00772E : EXPANSION OF AFP SURVEILLANCE 6 April 2005 _____________________________________ NOTE : This posting had been sent at the beginning of March but server's problems prevented its distribution. Bob Davis (mailto:[email protected]) from UNICEF/ESARO draws our attention to an article on AFP surveillance. _____________________________________ Dear Colleagues, See below the abstract of a longer piece on this subject recently published in the Weekly Epidemiological Record and the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. Full text is at http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5347a5.htm While the apparatus created for AFP surveillance is now being used for other viral diseases -- notably measles, rubella, and yellow fever -- one would like to see this same machinery used to track declines in maternal and neonatal tetanus. The global deadline of December 2005 for MNT elimination is approaching. Good reading, Bob D. -------------------- MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep. 2004 Dec 3;53(47):1113-6.Related Articles, Links Acute flaccid paralysis surveillance systems for expansion to other diseases, 2003-2004. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Since the 1988 World Health Assembly resolution to eradicate poliomyelitis, the number of countries where polio is endemic has decreased from 125 in 1988 to six at the end of 2003. As part of the eradication strategy, a global surveillance system was established to 1) identify acute flaccid paralysis (AFP) cases in children aged < or =15 years and 2) deploy a network of accredited laboratories to perform virologic testing of stool specimens to determine whether the paralysis resulted from poliovirus infection. As AFP surveillance systems matured, countries increasingly applied AFP surveillance strategies and infrastructure to detect other diseases. This report describes the status of global AFP surveillance, including its expansion or use as a model in 131 (66%) of 198 countries for the reporting of measles and other vaccine-preventable diseases. As poliomyelitis is eradicated, AFP surveillance systems in these and other countries might be further expanded and adapted to improve the detection of and response to other diseases. ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Visit the TECHNET21 Website at http://www.technet21.org You will find instructions to subscribe, a direct access to archives, links to reference documents and other features. ______________________________________________________________________________ To UNSUBSCRIBE, send a message to : mailto:[email protected] Leave the subject area BLANK In the message body, write unsubscribe TECHNET21E ______________________________________________________________________________ The World Health Organization and UNICEF support TechNet21. The TechNet21 e-Forum is a communication/information tool for generation of ideas on how to improve immunization services. It is moderated by Claude Letarte and is hosted in cooperation with the Centre de coopération internationale en santé et développement, Québec, Canada (http://www.ccisd.org) ______________________________________________________________________________