Prof Mamunar Rashid, Editor-in-Chief, NBPH, IEDCR

Surveillance of diseases play an important part in raising public health awareness and take appropriate measures to forecast and mitigate the problems. Although several institutions and departments, both government and non-government, are involved in surveillance activities, the Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research (IEDCR), under Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) and Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoH&FW), Bangladesh, is the mandated institute for conducting disease surveillance, especially for communicable diseases. In addition, it is also responsible for carrying out outbreak investigations whenever the situation demands.

The findings of these surveillance are available in their respective publications and postings. A collated and consolidated information from the various departments with periodic updates at regular intervals about the prevailing disease situation in Bangladesh and their changes over time is missing. It was felt that the NBPH could play an important role in this aspect.

The matter was discussed with the CDC Foundation who were very positive on the matter. A special workshop on preparing a framework for “Integrated Disease Surveillance and Response” was held on 27th September, 2023 with the focal persons of the surveillance systems conducted by IEDCR. They came up with their current reporting system and all efforts were made to come to a consensus about a common platform to report their respective surveillance data. It was also agreed that their surveillance reports carried out so far and future updates will be submitted to NBPH and an automated process be implemented as far as practical. This special issue of NBPH is an effort in that direction and some of the surveillances carried out in IEDCR (mentioned in Table 1) are presented here. Much still remains to be done and this special issue will be followed by sharing periodic updates on a regular basis in future NBPH issues. NBPH could also take initiatives to include pertinent information of all surveillance carried out in and outside IEDCR in the near future.

We owe special thanks to Kimberly Koporc, Public Health Bulletin Project Manager, CDC Foundation who along with John Moran, Consultant, CDC Foundation provided a lot of input in giving the issue its current shape. We are also thankful to the focal persons of all the disease surveillance systems and their active fellows who took the initiative to provide the data for this special issue.