REVIEW

Beyond counting cases: public health impacts of national Paediatric Surveillance Units

D Grenier¹, E J Elliott², Y Zurynski³, R Rodrigues Pereira⁴, M Preece⁵, R Lynn⁵, R von Kries⁶, H Zimmermann⁷, N P Dickson⁸, D Virella⁹

¹ Canadian Paediatric Surveillance Program, University of Ottawa and Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario, Ottawa, Canada
² Australian Paediatric Surveillance Unit, The Children’s Hospital at Westmead, Westmead, Australia
³ Australian Paediatric Surveillance Unit and The University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia
⁴ Dutch Paediatric Surveillance Unit, Netherlands Institute for Applied Sciences (TNO) Quality of Life, Leiden, The Netherlands
⁵ British Paediatric Surveillance Unit, Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, London, UK
⁶ German Paediatric Surveillance Unit, Institute for Social Paediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, Munich, Germany
⁷ Swiss Paediatric Surveillance Unit, Swiss Federal Office of Public Health, Division of Communicable Diseases Vaccinations Section, Bern, Switzerland
⁸ New Zealand Paediatric Surveillance Unit, Department of Women’s and Children’s Health, Dunedin School of Medicine, University of Otago, New Zealand
⁹ Portuguese Paediatric Surveillance Unit, Lisbon, Portugal

Correspondence to:
Professor Elizabeth Elliott
Australian Paediatric Surveillance Unit, Level 2, Research Building, The Children’s Hospital at Westmead, Locked Bag 4001, Westmead, NSW 2145, Australia;Elizabe2{at}chw.edu.au

Paediatric Surveillance Units (PSUs) have been established in 14 countries and facilitate national, prospective, active surveillance for a range of conditions, with monthly reporting by child health specialists. The International Network of Paediatric Surveillance Units (INoPSU) was established in 1998 and facilitates international collaboration among member PSUs and allows for sharing of resources, simultaneous data collection and hence comparison of data from different geographical regions. The impact of data collected by PSUs, both individually and collectively as members of INoPSU, on public health outcomes, clinical care and research is described.

Abbreviations: CRS, congenital rubella syndrome; FAS, fetal alcohol syndrome; HUS, haemolytic uraemic syndrome; INoPSU, International Network of Paediatric Surveillance Units; MSBP, Munchausen syndrome by proxy; PIND, progressive intellectual and neurological deterioration; PSU, Paediatric Surveillance Unit; vCJD, variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease

Keywords: child health; paediatrics; population surveillance; public health; rare diseases

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