VN#020 - National level hospital or public health institute for development, piloting and strengthening system capacity for Hospital-based Event-based Surveillance (HEBS)

Emerging and re-emerging diseases, such as avian influenza and pandemic human influenza, can lead to severe illness and death, and may cause international outbreaks that pose a threat to global health security. In 2018, Viet Nam promulgated the National Event-Based Surveillance (EBS) guidelines, which include HEBS, to complement indicator-based surveillance by facilitating rapid detection, reporting, confirmation, and assessment of public health events. As a result, multiple events, such as the first H5N1 outbreaks, the first COVID-19 outbreaks, and other public health threats, have been detected through HEBS and SVP surveillance.

Hospitals serve as key points for both systems, acting as critical sources for the early identification of disease outbreaks and acute public health events. Healthcare workers, as the primary point of contact for patients, play a central role in this process. However, the operationalization of HEBS surveillance remains inconsistent at the hospital level. The absence of standardized operating procedures (SOPs) in hospitals has contributed to misconceptions about clinicians' reporting responsibilities, uncertainty regarding the reporting process, hesitancy to report before laboratory confirmation, and difficulties in identifying disease clusters within hospitals. These issues can result in underreporting and delays in outbreak detection.

Address for Applications:

Subject: Application for VN#020 (National level hospital or public health institute for development, piloting and strengthening system capacity for Hospital-based Event-based Surveillance (HEBS); transmissibility, severity, and impact (TSI) assessment using clinical, epidemiological and genomics data for; and application of case reporting form (CRF) for severe acute respiratory infections (SARI) cases in health care facilities)

Administrative Officer

World Health Organization

wpvnmapplicants@who.int