Surveillance of Infectious Diseases

Training Overview

  • Audience: Public health agencies and personnel at the state and local level
  • Format: Online, self-paced
  • Price: Free
  • Length: 1 hour
  • Contact hours: Massachusetts CHO, RS, RN
  • Competencies: Basic Public Health Sciences, Health Education
  • Learning level: Awareness
  • Prerequisites: None
  • Companion training:None
  • Supplemental materials:

Disease surveillance refers to the ongoing and systematic collection, analysis, and interpretation of health-related data essential to public health practice. Disease surveillance is an essential component of any public health system and is used to monitor disease trends over time, detect disease outbreaks, prevent further spread of disease, and increase our knowledge of risk factors contributing to disease development. Public health agencies at the federal, state, and local levels are all involved in disease surveillance and are responsible for planning, implementing, and evaluating public health interventions when certain diseases are detected. This training describes the importance of disease surveillance and outlines the state and local responsibilities for infectious diseases.

Enroll To receive a certificate of completion. This requires registration to establish a learner profile and completion of pre- and post-tests
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What you’ll learn

After completing this training, you will be able to:

  • Define disease surveillance and infectious disease epidemiology
  • Explain what surveillance data is used for and the different types of disease surveillance
  • Describe the Massachusetts Virtual Epidemiological Network (MAVEN) and the National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System (NNDSS)
  • Detail the infectious disease reporting responsibilities of local public health (LPH) and Massachusetts Department of Public Health (MDPH)
  • Summarize the purposes of the Massachusetts state laws and regulations related to disease surveillance
  • Explain what a case definition is and the differences among confirmed, probable, and suspect cases

Subject Matter Experts


  • MaryKate Martelon
    Director of the Division of Surveillance, Analytics and Informatics
    Massachusetts Department of Public Health

  • Kate Hamdan
    Surveillance Epidemiologist
    Massachusetts Department of Public Health

  • Scott Troppy
    Surveillance Epidemiologist
    Massachusetts Department of Public Health

Disclaimer

This training was supported by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health (MDPH) with funds made available by the Cooperative Agreement Number TP921913, funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Its contents are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention or the Department of Health and Human Services.
This project is/was supported by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) under grant number UB6HP27877 “Regional Public Health Training Center Program.”This information or content and conclusions are those of the author and should not be construed as the official position or policy of, nor should any endorsements be inferred by HRSA, HHS or the U.S. Government.