Epidemiology
Epidemiology
Passive surveillance is a type of information gathering using pieces of data that are available on the reportable diseases. It can also be a mandated reporting, which is done by healthcare providers or a district health officer.
Gordis (2008) asserts that some of the issues that are related to passive surveillance are the lack of completeness and under-reporting of the reports. It was argued that these results are likely to happen due to the absence of available funds that can be used by the health care provider or an individual healthcare staff himself. Since the quality and completeness of the data reports depend on this person or his staff, compromised outcomes are possible as there are no additional resources available to complete the reported data, which eventually leads to lack of completeness and under reporting. So as for the implication towards the public health using passive surveillance, it may not provide the accurate risk’s magnitude for a certain population or the total disease, which can be prevented. As a result, passive surveillance may not totally control or stop the disease from spreading due to incomplete information (Alter, Mares, Hadler & Maynard, 2013).
References
Alter, M. J., Mares, A., Hadler, S. C., & Maynard, J. E. (2013). The Effect of Under Reporting on The Apparent Incidence and Epidemiology of Acute Vhial Hepatitis. American Journal of Epidemiology, 125(1), 133-139. Retrieved from http://aje.oxfordjournals.org/content/125/1/133.short
Gordis, L. (2008). Measuring the Occurrence of Disease: I. Morbidity. In Epidemiology (4th ed., pp. 58-80). Philadelphia, Pa: Elsevier, Saunders.
