Evaluation of Communicable Disease Surveillance System at Primary Health Care Centers in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

IntroductionJeddah is one of the busiest and multicultural cities in Saudi Arabia. It poses a higher risk of importing and spreading emerging communicable diseases because of the increased international traffic during the seasons of Hajj and Umrah. The Saudi Ministry of Health (MOH) emphasizes the r...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Curēus (Palo Alto, CA) CA), 2021-11, Vol.13 (11), p.e19798-e19798
Main Authors: Alshehri, Mohammed H, Alsabaani, Abdullah A, Alghamdi, Amal H, Alshehri, Ruba A
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Epidemiology/Public Health
Internet access
Laboratories
Personal protective equipment
Preventive Medicine
Software
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:IntroductionJeddah is one of the busiest and multicultural cities in Saudi Arabia. It poses a higher risk of importing and spreading emerging communicable diseases because of the increased international traffic during the seasons of Hajj and Umrah. The Saudi Ministry of Health (MOH) emphasizes the role of primary health care centers (PHCCs) as the first gate of the health care system. Therefore, having an efficient and effective communicable disease surveillance system (CDSS) at the level of PHCCs is crucial to provide early warning and sustain health security.MethodsThis study took place at all PHCCs in Jeddah city between September 2017 and January 2018 as a descriptive cross-sectional study. Data were collected from CDSS key informants using an interview-based questionnaire to evaluate the performance of CDSS by assessing its core and support functions at PHCCs.ResultsThe majority (93%) of PHCCs had reporting forms, and all of them had working laboratories. However, about 41% of PHCCs had the standard manual and only in the Arabic language, 12% were performing basic data analysis, and none of them had a written plan for epidemic response. Although Internet access was available at only 33% of PHCCs, other resources such as computers, printers, and personal protective equipment (PPE) were available at all PHCCs.ConclusionCDSS at PHCCs had an acceptable performance especially in functions such as reporting, confirmation, and supervision. However, other functions such as detection, registration, data analysis, epidemic preparedness, and feedback need to be strengthened. More comprehensive evaluations are required to further enhance the CDSS in Jeddah and Saudi Arabia.
ISSN:2168-8184
2168-8184
DOI:10.7759/cureus.19798