Global Tuberculosis Control 2010 - Florida Department of Health

analysing surveillance and programmatic data, with
analyses used to develop recommendations for how
surveillance systems need to be strengthened and to
produce updated estimates of disease burden. Regional
workshops to apply the Task Force framework (
) for systematic assessment of surveillance data were
held in the Eastern Mediterranean, European, South-
East Asia and Western Pacific regions and the Region
of the Americas. Country missions in which the framework
was applied were undertaken in the Philippines,
the United Republic of Tanzania and Viet Nam. By July
2010, these workshops and country missions had covered
a total of 70 countries ( ). A workshop
for 17 countries in the African Region is scheduled for
December 2010.
An important conclusion from workshops and country
missions was that there is an urgent need to strengthen
vital registration systems, to allow better measurement
of mortality ( ). There is also an urgent need to
introduce electronic recording and reporting systems,
without which it is difficult or impossible to adequately
assess many aspects of data quality. Examples of aspects
of data quality that are difficult or impossible to assess
without case-based and electronic reporting systems
include the extent to which misclassifications and duplications
exist. In addition, the availability of electronic
data, stored in well-managed relational databases (not
Excel spreadsheets), greatly facilitates data analysis.
More widespread adoption of updated recommendations
on recording and reporting is also required (for example,
to ensure availability of data disaggregated by HIV status
and source of referral).
An example of experience with implementing a casebased
and electronic recording and reporting system
(from China) in provided in.
Besides improving estimates of the disease burden
caused by TB, better data from surveys and surveillance
combined with better analysis of these data should be of
great value in identifying where and why cases are not
being detected. In turn, findings should help to identify
which components of the Stop TB Strategy need to be
introduced or scaled-up to improve TB control. Examples
from Cambodia, Myanmar and Viet Nam are highlighted
in the second edition of WHO’s guidelines on surveys of
the prevalence of TB disease. 1
1
The second edition of these guidelines (following publication of
the first edition in 2007) has been produced as a major collaborative
effort among technical and financial partners and lead survey
investigators from Asian and African countries. The guidelines
were in the late stages of preparation at the time this report went
to press, with publication expected before the end of 2010.