In a word, surveillance. Most people think of public health as equating to preventative medicine – getting vaccines, washing hands, cleaning up garbage. But the oft overlooked aspect of public health is the effective use of timely and accurate epidemiology. This can make “predicting” a pandemic less of a mystical game of darts, and a more predictable (and hopefully reliable) science. Preventing a devastating disease outbreak is not about seeing the bad coming before it happens, but getting in early to stop the bad from becoming worse. With the explosion of new technologies and social media our ability to track the spread of disease is greatly strengthened. Please take the time to explore the links posted on this website to learn more about the important role that epidemiology and new technologies will play in future public health efforts.
Origins and Blame and Stories
January 11, 2011
2:00-3:00 pm
Your working group has one hour to discuss the following questions:
Where did these strains come from?
How did they spread?
Dr. Ian Greenwald, an emergency physician at Duke University Medical Center and an expert in distaster response planning, offers his thoughts on a mass vaccination campaign in the Durham/Chapel Hill area in the face of a disruptive and widespread pandemic during Session III (Emergency Preparedness and Response: Global Pandemic, Local Contexts).
Globally we face a shortfall of an estimated 4.3 million health care workers. As you can imagine, the consequences are enormous when a local or global health crisis arises and there are not enough staff members to address the need.
Dr. Ian Greenwald and Dr. Cameron Wolfe both touched on this issue, but what are your thoughts on the dilemma? How do you allocate resources and manpower efficiently when you lack enough personnel? How do you address this issue when you are facing an emergency crisis, such as an infectious disease outbreak? Do we simply accept the fact that we will not be able to provide care to every single individual?
A Cisco TelePresence videoconference with Dr. Ruotao Wang provided an insightful look into how China monitors and controls epidemics. With the 2003 SARS epidemic, China learned a series of lessons that highlight the importance of early detection and response, in conjunction with open and strong communication between all parties. 
Since 2003, the country has implemented a real-time web-based system, which allows any infectious disease identified at the clinic or hospital level to be reported on the internet within 6-24 hours. Dr. Wang’s talk raises several discussion points concerning global surveillance of outbreaks:
In your opinion, what additional tools can be used to monitor infectious diseases?
How do surveillance methods vary from country to country?
What actors do you think are essential at the local and global level to monitor and control an epidemic?
Dr. Broverman leads a spirited discussion in a resource scarce setting (i.e. low amount of vaccine) who should get this life saving treatment? What criteria could be used? What should one use? Who should make these decisions?
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