The role of health surveillance in preventing public health crises: Current challenges

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: Health surveillance is essential to protect public health, monitoring and controlling risks that affect the well-being and health of the population. The increase in health crises, such as COVID-19 and food contamination, reinforces the need for a robust and integrated system, which goes beyond inspection, including education, disease monitoring and product control. METHODOLOGY: This is an integrative review of the literature. The following databases were used: VHL and SCIELO, in addition to the Boolean operator “AND”, the year filter (2019-2023) and the languages ​​English, Portuguese and Spanish. 10 articles were included in the research. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION: Health Surveillance faces challenges such as antimicrobial resistance that overwhelms health systems. Other challenges include climate change, globalization, the emergence of new pathogens such as COVID-19, product monitoring, global mobility of people, infrastructure limitations, lack of trained professionals and technology. FINAL CONSIDERATIONS: Health surveillance is crucial for public health, but faces complex challenges in a dynamic global scenario. Strengthening it is essential to face current and future health crises, protecting the population from growing and unpredictable threats.