19 March 2016, Cairo – WHO Country Office in Egypt and the Communicable Disease Control Department at the Ministry of Health and Population are working together to strengthen the sentinel surveillance system for acute infectious neurological diseases, including meningitis and encephalitis, in 8 governorates. Several training workshops were conducted for health care workers and surveillance officers on case definition, case investigation and surveillance standard operating procedures.
The main objective of the surveillance system is to provide quality data necessary for studying the burden of disease caused by each causative organism, and to assist evidence-based decision-making on the introduction of vaccines.
Within the same framework, WHO Country Office in Egypt supported the Communicable Disease Control Department with 16 desktop computers to strengthen the electronic surveillance system for the reporting of acute infectious neurological diseases through timely data reporting and analysis.