The national action plan for malaria elimination in China (2010-2020) was issued by the Chinese Ministry of Health along with other 13 ministries and commissions in 2010. The ultimate goal of the national action plan was to eliminate local transmission of malaria by the end of 2020. Surveillance and response are the most important components driving the whole process of the national malaria eli...

Microbial surveillance systems have varied in their source of support; type of laboratory reporting (patient care or reference); inclusiveness of reports filed; extent of microbial typing; whether single hospital, multihospital, or multicountry; proportion of total medical centers participating; and types, levels, integration across levels, and automation of analyses performed. These surveillan...

We used population-based data to evaluate how often groups of randomly selected clinical laboratories accurately estimated the prevalence of resistant pneumococci and captured trends in resistance over time. Surveillance for invasive pneumococcal disease was conducted in eight states from 1996 to 1998. Within each surveillance area, we evaluated the proportion of all groups of three, four, and ...

BACKGROUND Little is known about HIV-1 subtype distribution in Morocco. Some data suggest an emergence of new HIV subtypes. We conducted phylogenetic analysis on a nationally representative sample of 60 HIV-1 viral specimens collected during 2004-2005 through the Morocco national HIV sentinel surveillance survey. RESULTS While subtype B is still the most prevalent, 23.3% of samples represente...

The 2012/13 influenza season in Canada has been characterised to date by early and moderately severe activity, dominated (90%) by the A(H3N2) subtype. Vaccine effectiveness (VE) was assessed in January 2013 by Canada's sentinel surveillance network using a test-negative case-control design. Interim adjusted-VE against medically attended laboratory-confirmed influenza A(H3N2) infection was 45% (...

Chlamydia trachomatis (CT) infections are not reportable in Germany and limited data on prevalence are available. CT screening has been offered free of charge to pregnant women since 1995 and to all women under 25 years since 2008. For symptomatic women and men, diagnostic testing is covered by statutory health insurance. We describe the establishment of a nationwide, laboratory-based, voluntar...

BACKGROUND Surveillance for influenza and influenza-like illness (ILI) is important for guiding public health prevention programs to mitigate the morbidity and mortality caused by influenza, including pandemic influenza. Nontraditional sources of data for influenza and ILI surveillance are of interest to public health authorities if their validity can be established. METHODS/PRINCIPAL FINDING...

Local disease burden data are necessary to set national influenza vaccination policy. In 2010 the population of South Africa was 50 million and the HIV prevalence was 11%. We used a previously developed methodology to determine severe influenza burden in South Africa. Hospitalized severe acute respiratory illness (SARI) incidence was calculated, stratified by HIV status, for four age groups usi...

BACKGROUND This study uses surveillance, survey and program data to estimate past trends and current levels of HIV in Botswana and the effects of treatment and prevention programs. METHODS/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS Data from sentinel surveillance at antenatal clinics and a national population survey were used to estimate the trend of adult HIV prevalence from 1980 to 2007. Using the prevalence trend...

BACKGROUND Sentinel surveillance has previously been used to monitor and identify disease outbreaks in both human and animal contexts. Three approaches for the selection of sentinel sites are proposed and evaluated regarding their ability to capture overall respiratory disease trends using provincial abattoir condemnation data from all abattoirs open throughout the study for use in a sentinel s...