Surveillance

Surveillance systems are the intelligence services of public health. They track infections and disease, but also the behaviours, host animal migration and other factors that are likely to spread pathogens or lead to disease.  At Ternyata, we apply the methods of infectious disease surveillance to health issues that are driven by behaviour, culture, economics and politics. For example, we are supporting the development of methods to incorporate economic and market factors into surveillance of medicine quality, and have also looked at the epidemiology of death associated with conflict. More conventional surveillance work has focused on the behaviours that spread HIV and other sexually transmitted infections.

This page provides links to a number of guidelines and other resources to help with HIV surveillance, including behavioural surveillance. All were developed at least in part by Ternyata Director Elizabeth Pisani. The selection is biased towards tools most useful for epidemics in which HIV remains concentrated among people who buy and sell sex, drug injectors and men who have sex with men. Note that the copyright for many of these publications is held by the publishing organisation.

You can also find publications arising from national surveillance data here. They include papers on Indonesia, East Timor, Pakistan, China, Cambodia, Bangladesh and elsewhere, as well as regional and global reports.

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Proposed methods for surveillance and estimation of medicine quality
JMIR Public Health and Surveillance, 2021

This paper underlines the need to align the design of surveillance systems with the main purpose of the surveillance, and proposes two different methods for use in the surveillance of medicine quality.

Guidelines for Second Generation HIV Surveillance (.pdf 270k)
WHO/UNAIDS, Geneva, 2000

These guidelines — the first to describe a more comprehensive approach to HIV and behavioural surveillance — aim to improve resource allocation and data collection for more effective monitoring of national HIV epidemics. They focus on tailoring surveillance to the epidemic type, and on integrating behavioural and sero-surveillance.
Full URL: http://www.ternyata.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/2nd_generation.pdf

Behavioural Surveillance Surveys: Guidelines for repeated behavioural surveys in populations at risk of HIV (.pdf 2,263Kb)
Family Health International, Bangkok, 2000

Technical guidelines for repeat surveys of HIV-related risk behaviours. This document, which provides information on sampling, data analysis, and other aspects of survey implementation, aims to guide those conducting behavioural surveys in sub-populations at risk for HIV. Many advances in methodology have been made since this guide was written, but it remains the best single overview of the behavioural surveillance process. While it provides model questionnaires, these have long been superseded in practice.
Full URL: http://www.ternyata.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/BSS_Eng.pdf

Biological and Clinical Data Collection in Population Surveys in Less Developed Countries ( .pdf 4,398 Kb)
MEASURE Evaluation, Chapel Hill, 2000

Arising from a meeting at the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, this document reviews technical and ethical challenges involved in expanding population and health surveys to include biological and clinical data. It makes recommendations for necessary preparatory steps for any such expansion. Since the document was written several major surveys – including the Demographic and Health Survey series – have integrated biomarkers. It remains a good overview of the challenges that need to be considered in this area.
Full URL: http://www.ternyata.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/biomarkers.pdf

HIV surveillance in hard-to-reach populations (html document, opens in a new page)
Schwartländer B, Ghys P, Pisani E et al. AIDS 2001 15 (suppl 3) S 1-3

A summary of the major issues facing governments and other institutions in setting up systems to collect reliable information on HIV and STI prevalence and risk behaviours in sub-populations at high risk for HIV, in ways that are affordable and replicable over time. Populations discussed include injecting drug users, transgender, male and female sex workers and their clients and other men who have sex with men.
HIV surveillance among female sex workers
Full URL: http://www.ternyata.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/hard_to_reach_populations_AIDS.htm

HIV surveillance among female sex workers (html document, opens in a new page)
Ghys P, Jenkins C, Pisani E. AIDS 2001 15 (S3) S33 – S40

This paper describes the issues facing those conducting HIV surveillance among female sex workers. It discusses ethical issues and data use as well as the challenges associated with getting reliable data that correctly records trends in infection, risk behaviour and prevention service use over time.
Full URL: http://www.ternyata.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/surveillanc_among_sex_workers.htm

HIV surveillance: A global perspective (.pdf 68.5 kb)
Pisani E, Lazzari S, Walker N, Schwartländer B. 2003. Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes 2003, 32: S3-S11
Full URL: http://www.ternyata.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/global_surveillance.pdf


Find more links on the Publications page