Communicable disease surveillance during complex emergencies

Complex emergencies are relatively acute situations affecting large civilian populations, usually involving a combination of war or civil strife, food shortages, and population displacement. In such situations, communicable diseases such as diarrhea, measles, acute respiratory infections, and malaria can contribute to high mortality and morbidity. One of the public health priorities during initial interventions is to set up or to strengthen surveillance systems to promptly detect and respond to outbreaks of epidemic-prone diseases. This chapter presents practical aspects of communicable disease surveillance in complex emergencies and the underlying constraints that influence their design. Examples of systems developed for four complex emergency situations are provided: refugees in a hosting country integrated into the local population (Albania, 1999), a population in the aftermath of a war (Iraq, 2003), a population displaced in its own country (Darfur, 2004), and a population internally displaced after a natural disaster (Haiti, 2010). This edition first published 2013