My research group and me are inquiring about this question and we want to answer some isues about this topic, in addition to this general question, we want to know:
-What is understood, exactly, by biosurveillance?
-What is understood, in terms of biosecurity and biosurveillance, by Early Warning Systems?
-From the point of view of biosurveillance, scientifics and experts, what is currently the role of citizenship?
-There are tools, apps, guidelines, etc. whereby citizenship can collaborate or "enact" as alert system?
-Where can we find documentation about this kind of issues?
-What is a sentinel site or a sentinel web? and how it works?
-What is the role of Internet into this new intelligence related with detecting pandemics and acting before it occurs?
I have some stuff written about it in my blog: http://ebaes.blogspot.com.es/
Thanks in advance,
Enrique
Enrique,
Thanks for your excellent job of posing this question, and articulating many critical issues. I will be following the discussion that I hope will ensue, and perhaps make some more comments of my own after seeing where the discussion goes. It seems to me that this whole area has been inadequately defined and standardized. I consider much of my work to be biosurveillance - looking for prevalence and distribution of pathogens in natural environments, primarily through the use of sentinel organisms. However, surveillance or biomonitoring (which term is best?) for vector populations is also important. I've attached a couple of relevant papers. Best wishes, Bruce
Article Aquatic invasive species and emerging infectious disease thr...
Article Biomonitoring for zoonotic protists in terrestrial and aquat...
Article Molecular markers and sentinel organisms for environmental monitoring
Hi Enrique,
As you mentioned, the term ‚biosurveillance‘ is closely related to the term ‘bio-monitoring’, in which monitoring is less regular than one would expet it to be in a surveillance system. Originally, these terms were coined about 40 years ago, when environmental concerns grew because of the ever occurring industrial pollution. Standard books of the matter should give you an overview about the terms applied.
Are there tools where the citizen can contribute?
Usually, every citizen can forward his/her concern to the appropriate parties, the national or international bodies concerned with the issue. In the U.S. this is certainly the EPA.
A sentinel site is a reference site being used usually on a national base. Look at what the tropical docs say about sentinel sites for their research:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Society_of_Travel_Medicine
wish you all the best with your endeavor,
good luck!
Thank you guys for your answers, undoutedly you both have helped me. I'm go to inquiry the International Society of Travel Medicine in order to find more information.
We are very interesting in tools like HealthMap or GoViral, where people can upload or report information about new diseases or outbreaks, do you know some similar??
Thanks :)
This night I was thinking about the topic we are interested in, and I would rather know if you agree with the idea that people (lay citizenship) is understand as a new realm of risk (in terms of biosurveillance) due to the "flux" or the movement between boundaries.
I say this, because we want to confirm hypothesis of whether people can be "surveilled" and "surveillors" of the bios at the same time during and outbreak, for instance.
Biosecurity is concerned with 1. Prevention of entry of a risk pathogen or pest to a new region; 2. Early detection of the incursion of a new risk pathogen or pest to a new region; 3. Containment and / or eradication of the new pest or pathogen.
Bio-surveillance is therefore primarily concerned with point 2 above.
Surveillance can be passive (eg. relying on public notification) or active (involving a formal state or agency funded programme) or a mix of both. Promed is an example of an Internet based crowd sourced global surveillance system.
Sentinel populations or sites involve localities that are visited to check for the presence of the pest or pathogen on a regular basis.
"Early Warning Systems" has come to mean computer based techniques for detection of a new disease into a region or detection of an increase in the incidence of an existing disease signifying an epidemic is developing. The usual approach involves tapping into and analysing "big data" and/or multiple data sources to detect indicators of an emerging epidemic early enough such that health agencies can warn the public and implement strategies to limit the spread of the disease or pest.
Thanks for your answer, Robert. About Promed, the system you have mentioned. Do you know how it works? we are analyzing other systems like HealthMap or GoViral, where people can see new outbreaks in a map at the basis of news (more or less supervised) about them; or where people can alert about a new case (i.e) if his neighboor becomes ill.
You can find out more about Promed at: http://www.promedmail.org/
It is an email based service that people can email in reports of animal or human disease outbreaks. It is moderated by specialists in various disciplines such as virology etc. If accepted, then the emails reports are disseminated to all those on the network. Often, the specialists make comments to add to the report to fill in technical detail. Promed has been following the Ebola outbreak quite closely.
Wow, it seems to be very well supported. I am going to take a look at the web. If you have any more information is welcome, Robert.
Thanks.
Promed is supported by most of the Chief Veterinary Officers of the countries that belong to the Office International des Epizooties (OIE) the World Animal Health Organisation.
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