Home › NCK Licensing Exam (Nursing) › Public Health › Epidemiology and Outbreak Investigation › Public health surveillance is best described as …
Public health surveillance is best described as which ongoing activity?
ATesting every resident of a community for one disease
BTreating each reported patient until they recover fully
CRunning laboratory confirmation on all clinical samples
DCollecting, analysing and disseminating health data
Answer & Solution
Correct answer: D. Collecting, analysing and disseminating health data
1. Surveillance is a continuous cycle rather than a one-off exercise.
2. It collects health data systematically, analyses and interprets them, then sends the interpretation back to those who act on it.
3. Testing every resident is a survey, and treating patients is clinical care, so neither is surveillance.
4. Laboratory confirmation supports surveillance but is not the activity itself.
_Source: CDC Principles of Epidemiology in Public Health Practice, 3rd Edition, section Core Epidemiologic Functions_
Related questions
At a banquet the attack rate was 65.4% among people who ate beef and 11.4% among those whoWhich study design suits an outbreak of gastroenteritis among wedding guests, where a compCommunicating the findings of a completed outbreak investigation usually takes which two fAfter control measures have begun, active surveillance is continued mainly to answer whichControl and prevention measures are numbered eleventh in the conceptual sequence of an outVerifying the diagnosis early in an outbreak investigation serves which two purposes?A health department must judge whether an increase in reports of a notifiable disease is aInvestigators telephone and visit hospitals and clinics to collect information on any furt