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Public Health & Epidemiology vocabulary · Surveillance and Reporting

Syndromic surveillance

Meaning in public health & epidemiology, with examples

nounAdvanced term

In public health & epidemiology, syndromic surveillance means: Surveillance that tracks groups of symptoms or other health-related signals, such as fever and cough, before a lab diagnosis is made, in order to detect unusual activity early.

In Turkish: sendromik sürveyans

How it is used

Uses near real-time data from emergency departments, telephone helplines, pharmacy sales or school absences. It gives early warning of outbreaks, heatwave effects or problems at mass gatherings, but its signals must be confirmed by other methods.

Example sentences

  1. Syndromic surveillance picked up a rise in gastrointestinal illness two days after the flood.

  2. During the festival, we ran daily syndromic surveillance in all emergency departments.

Common collocations

  • syndromic surveillance system
  • early warning
  • real-time data
  • signal detection
  • surveillanceThe continuous, systematic collection, analysis and interpretation of health data, shared in good time so that action can be taken to prevent and control disease.
  • sentinel surveillanceSurveillance based on a selected group of reporting sites, such as certain clinics or laboratories, that collect high-quality data to follow trends rather than count every case.
  • outbreakA sudden rise in the number of cases of a disease above what is normally expected, usually limited to one place, group or event.
  • case definitionA standard set of criteria, such as symptoms, lab results, time and place, used to decide whether a person should be counted as a case of a particular disease.

More terms: Surveillance and Reporting

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This page explains English vocabulary for learners. It is not medical advice.