India: first continuous and comprehensive disease surveillance in Pune

The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) has launched the first continuous and comprehensive disease surveillance in the city. The initiative aims to track and prevent the spread of communicable, vector-borne, and water-borne diseases across the urban area. It was fostered in response to recent outbreaks of Zika, Chikungunya, COVID-19, and Guillain-Barré Syndrome (GBS) in Pune. Dr Nina Borade, health chief of the PMC, said that proactive surveillance and vigilance plans will help prevent future outbreaks. Both public and private healthcare professionals have been involved in the scheme, with government and private hospitals asked to regularly report cases of communicable and notifiable diseases. Dr Vaishali Jadhav, assistant health chief of the PMC, said that the civic water supply department will also perform continuous tests of water samples to prevent the outbreak of water-borne diseases like diarrhoea and GBS. Citizens are invited to follow hygiene guidelines, report unusual trends or events, and cooperate with the PMC.
Dr Rajesh Dighe, assistant health chief of the PMC, said that monitoring insect density and eliminating breeding grounds will soon be implemented to reduce the risk of vector-borne diseases. As many as 20% of fever patients will also undergo testing for malaria as part of passive surveillance measures. According to city officials, the initiative will follow the guidelines issued by the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC). The PMC will soon create a Metropolitan Surveillance Unit (MSU) to help civic bodies understand the cause of diseases in urban areas and identify potential outbreaks. The unit will also function as a hub of disease surveillance in the city and facilitate real-time reporting of data on outbreak-prone diseases from public and private institutions.