The Global epidemiology of infectious diseases

The collection and use of timely and reliable health information in support of health policies and programmes have been actively promoted by the World Health Organization since its foundation. Valid health statistics are required at all levels of the health system, ranging from data for health services support at the local community level, through to national statistics and information used to monitor the effectiveness of national health strategies. Equally, regional and global data are required to monitor global epidemics and to continuously assess the effectiveness of global public health approaches to disease and injury prevention and control, as coordinated by WHO technical programmes. Despite the clear need for epidemiological data, reliable and comprehensive health statistics are not available in many Member states of WHO, and, indeed, in many countries the ascertainment of disease levels, patterns and trends is still very uncertain.