Improving Surveillance

These projects strengthen country and partner capacity for surveillance and monitoring and evaluation systems.

Worldwide, most neural tube defects are not being prevented. Expanding the reach of global folic acid fortification in low-and middle-resource countries can lead to the prevention of 150,000–210,000 neural tube defects each year. Countries such as Chile, South Africa, Canada and Costa Rica have seen a decrease in neural tube defects as a result of fortification. These successes can serve as examples for other countries considering fortification with folic acid.

Birth Defects COUNT is a global initiative to significantly reduce death and lifelong disability resulting from neural tube defects. Through this initiative, we provide scientific and programmatic expertise to help expand neural tube defects prevention and strengthen birth defects surveillance worldwide. Birth Defects COUNT relies on three pillars to advance and support effective neural tube defects prevention efforts: science, partnerships, and public health policy. In India, we provided technical assistance to help finalize the implementation plan for the micronutrient household survey with biomarkers collection (Phase 1) of the Haryana Demonstration Project. In Tanzania and Kenya, we are working on the implementation of birth defects surveillance programs.

Resources

Partners

U.S. Food and Drug Administration
Government of Haryana
Kenya Ministry of Health
National Health Mission (India)
PGI
Tanzania Ministry of Health
World Health Organization, South-East Asia Regional Office

Cancer is a significant global public health burden and cause of suffering and death worldwide. One way to help reduce this burden is to create registries that collect data on cancer cases in a given population. Data are essential for planning, monitoring, evaluating, and improving cancer prevention and control efforts. Population-based cancer registries are the main source of cancer data and provide public health officials with important information about cancer in a specific region, including how many people are affected, who are affected, the treatment they get, and what stage of cancer they have.

CDC is working with the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) of the World Health Organization and other partners to establish six regional support centers (hubs) that provide training and assistance to cancer registries around the world. CDC supports these centers in Asia and sub-Saharan Africa and is working with partners to develop a regional hub in the Caribbean.

Resources

Partners

Noncommunicable diseases (NCDs), including heart disease, stroke, cancer, and diabetes, are the leading cause of mortality worldwide (68% of all deaths). The systematic monitoring of risk factors to generate accurate and timely data is essential for a country’s ability to track progress, prioritize resources, and make sound policy decisions to address the growing NCD burden.

With increasing access and use of mobile phones globally, opportunities exist to explore the feasibility of using mobile phone technology as an interim method to collect NCD data and supplement household surveys. Mobile phones have the potential to allow for efficiencies in producing timely, affordable, and accurate data to monitor trends, and augment traditional health surveys.

Collaborating with the Bloomberg Data for Health Initiative’s NCD Surveillance partners, including Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the CDC Foundation, CDC is assessing the feasibility, quality, and validity of nationally representative mobile phone surveys, implementing NCD mobile phone surveys in ten countries and supporting face-to-face WHO STEPS surveys in six overlapping countries, comparing findings from the two methodologies and proposing a globally standardized protocol.

Resources

Fact Sheet: Bloomberg Data for Health Initiative: Assessing Mobile Phone Surveys for NCDs

Partners

National Governments
Bloomberg Philanthropies
CDC Foundation
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
World Health Organization

The Global School-based Student Health Survey (GSHS) was developed by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). GSHS is a school-based survey conducted primarily among students aged 13–17 years in more than 90 developing countries.

The purpose of the GSHS is to provide data on health behaviors and protective factors among students to

Help countries develop priorities, establish programs, and advocate for resources for school health and youth health programs and policies
Allow international agencies, countries, and others to make comparisons across countries regarding the prevalence of health behaviors and protective factors and
Establish trends in the prevalence of health behaviors and protective factors by country for use in evaluating school health and youth health promotion programs.

On-going capacity building and technical support are provided by WHO and CDC.

Resources

Road traffic injuries are a global public health crisis and the leading cause of death for young people 15-29 years old. Road traffic injuries result in as many as 50 million injuries per year—the combined population of five of the world's largest cities. Walking, riding bicycles, and using motorcycles are popular forms of transportation in low- and middle-income countries, but people traveling in these ways must share road space with fast moving cars and trucks, putting them at higher risk of injury or death from road traffic crashes.

CDC provides direct technical assistance to governmental and non-governmental organizations to build better systems to collect and analyze data on road traffic injuries, and use data to plan and evaluate programs.

Resources

Fact Sheet: Road Safety: Preventing Injury and Saving Lives Globally

Global Road Safety

Partners

Tobacco use is a major risk factor for four major noncommunicable diseases (NCDs): chronic respiratory diseases, cancer, heart disease and stroke, and diabetes. In addition, tobacco use also has an impact on communicable diseases. For instance, it is a leading risk factor for tuberculosis (TB) and deaths from TB, and smokers with HIV are more likely to contract HIV-related infections and other serious illnesses.

The CDC Global Tobacco Control program works with partners to monitor the global tobacco epidemic, promote effective tobacco control programs, increase country and regional tobacco control efforts, and share resources.

Resources

Fact Sheet: Tobacco Prevention and Control: Saving this Generation and the Next

Global Tobacco Control

Global Tobacco Surveillance System Data (GTSSData)

Global Adult Tobacco Surveillance (GATS) Atlas

Publications

Partners

Recent Violence Against Children Survey (VACS) data showed that among those who reported being a victim of childhood sexual violence, few received healthcare, legal/security aid, or counseling support. Children exposed to violence are at greater risk for mental illness, chronic diseases, infectious diseases such as HIV, reproductive health problems, and social and developmental difficulties.

CDC provides technical assistance to countries throughout the world as they implement the VACS. These surveys measure the physical, emotional, and sexual violence against boys and girls, as well as identify risk and protective factors and health consequences of childhood sexual violence. VACS data have been released in eight countries, and data collection is ongoing in several other countries.

CDC has also created the THRIVES framework to summarize the critical components for preventing violence against children. THRIVES is a core group of complementary strategies for preventing violence against children. CDC, PEPFAR, UNICEF, USAID and the WHO each recognize multiple THRIVES strategies as critical components in the reduction of violence against children.

Resources

Fact Sheet: Violence Against Children Survey: Using Science to Fuel Action

Violence Against Children Survey

THRIVES

Publications

Partners