Enhanced surveillance during a public health emergency in a resource-limited setting: Experience from a large dengue outbreak in Solomon Islands, 2016-17.

Between August-2016 and April-2017, Solomon Islands experienced the largest and longest-running dengue outbreak on record in the country, with 12,329 suspected cases, 877 hospitalisations and 16 deaths. We conducted a retrospective review of related data and documents, and conducted key informant interviews to characterise the event and investigate the adaptability of syndromic surveillance for enhanced and expanded data collection during a public health emergency in a low resource country setting. While the outbreak quickly consumed available public and clinical resources, we found that authorities were able to scale up the conventional national syndrome-based early warning surveillance system to support the increased information demands during the event demonstrating the flexibility of the system and syndromic surveillance more broadly.

Designs and methods used in published Australian health promotion evaluations 1992-2011.

Objective: To describe the designs and methods used in published Australian health promotion evaluation articles between 1992 and 2011.

Methods: Using a content analysis approach, we reviewed 157 articles to analyse patterns and trends in designs and methods in Australian health promotion evaluation articles. The purpose was to provide empirical evidence about the types of designs and methods used.

Pacific-wide simplified syndromic surveillance for early warning of outbreaks.

The International Health Regulations require timely detection and response to outbreaks. Many attempts to set up an outbreak early warning system in Pacific island countries and territories (PICTs) have failed. Most were modelled on systems from large countries; large amounts of data often overwhelmed small public health teams.

An extreme bushfire smoke pollution event: health impacts and public health challenges.

Aims: To determine the health impacts of smoke and the effectiveness of public health advisories during a severe bushfire smoke event in Albury, NSW.

Methods: The NSW Department of Environment and Climate Change provided PM(10) data. A computer-assisted telephone survey using random digit dialling was conducted following the smoke event to assess health impacts and the effectiveness of advisories.