Advances in disease surveillance: Putting the "public" into public health

MIAMI—Before a government reports a disease outbreak, cases must usually be counted, verified and assessed—a process that can take days, weeks or months.

This delay creates a tension, however, as faster responses are the best hope for keeping a local outbreak from becoming an epidemic or even a pandemic. Overall, bureaucratic diligence and even political reluctance can keep a lid on emerging infections for too long, experts remarked here Friday at the 14th annual International Congress on Infectious Diseases.

Following trends in law enforcement and the media, public health workers more recently are calling on individual clinicians, lay people and local residents—not just officially validated data—to keep them informed of outbreaks in an effort to do better at staying ahead of health trends before they turn into big problems.