Beginning in November 2021, Canada has repeatedly contended with outbreaks of the H5N1 strain of avian influenza, impacting both domestic poultry and wild bird populations. These outbreaks have not only posed public health risks but also caused widespread disruption and significant economic damage within the bird farming industry. This study introduces a new digital-based surveillance approach and Early Warning System (EWS) that harnesses publicly available web data to track and anticipate avian influenza outbreaks with greater speed and efficiency.
Subject Area: Surveillance Advances
The Canadian Immunization Monitoring Program Active (IMPACT): Surveillance of Infectious Diseases in Canadian Children
IMPACT has been active for over 30 years at 14 Canadian centres. It is responsible for surveillance of adverse events following immunizations, vaccine failures and key vaccine preventable infectious diseases. This presentation will highlight essential functions informing public health and surveillance utilizing case study examples.
CANCOVID-Preg: A Pan-Canadian Surveillance Program of Outcomes for Pregnant Women and People and their Infants who Acquired COVID-19 in Pregnancy.
This presentation will provide an overview of the findings from CANCOVID-Preg, a pan-Canadian surveillance program of SARS-CoV-2 infection in pregnancy. CANCOVID-Preg includes data on >40,000 pregnancies in Canada from 2020-2022 that were impacted by COVID-19 and was utilized over the course of the pandemic to guide public health and vaccination recommendations. With this data, we have described the impact on maternal and infant health associated with SARS-CoV-2 infection in pregnancy, elucidated the relationship between SARS-CoV-2 variants and maternal, pregnancy, and infant outcomes, and demonstrated the protective effect of vaccination in each variant period.
Vision 2030: Moving Data to Public Health Action
This presentation provides an overview of the Vision 2030 development, a depiction of a high-functioning public health surveillance ‘system of systems’ and showcases how some ongoing initiatives by public health partners in Canada are addressing the persistent challenges in public health and contributing toward achieving the vision.
From Data to Action: Cancer Surveillance and Occupational Diseases
This seminar includes a presentation by Dr. Donna Turner on cancer surveillance. Then, Dr. Jeavana Sritharan and Dr. Paul Demers present on Ontario’s Occupational Disease Surveillance System (ODSS).
Canada’s Surveillance Efforts for HPAI in Dairy Cattle and Beyond
This seminar covers the status of the HPAI outbreak in US dairy cattle and other species. It is followed by a description of Canada’s surveillance and response plan, its collaborative multi-jurisdictional development, how it closely resembles the recently launched US surveillance plan and how this form of surveillance could be used for future outbreaks and disease detection on Canadian dairy farms and beyond.
Wastewater Monitoring in Northern and Remote Areas: The Eeyou Istchee Experience
This seminar will feature an overview of the work done to set up and maintain a wastewater monitoring system in Cree communities in Eeyou Istchee, located in northern Quebec.
First Nations Data Governance and Public Health Surveillance in Canada: Insights, Lessons, and Future Direction
The seminar introduces participants to First Nations’ experiences, challenges, priorities and lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic in relation to data management and public health surveillance.
Speakers discuss First Nations’ vision for data sovereignty and how the future network of Regional Information Governance Centres (RIGCs) could enhance public health surveillance mechanisms and processes for First Nations.
One Health Approach to Risk Assessment
This seminar will discuss the scope and importance of One Health in Canada, as well as guidance and best practices within the Public Health Agency of Canada’s (PHAC) One Health Approach to Risk Assessment (OHARO) Framework.
Genomics for Public Health Surveillance
Genomics is at the forefront of public health surveillance and has been widely applied to tracking infectious diseases. From identifying novel, emerging, and circulating pathogens and variants; tracking the spread and behaviour of pathogens; to monitoring vaccine effectiveness; genomics plays a crucial role in infectious disease surveillance for informing public health priorities and interventions.
Advancing the Role of Death Investigations for Surveillance
This seminar will feature a discussion about how data from death investigations are used for surveillance activities to inform strategies that reduce preventable death.
Advancing the Practice of Wastewater Surveillance
Please join us for the sixth seminar of the Surveillance Advances seminar series entitled “Advancing the practice of wastewater surveillance”, on Tuesday, March 26, 2024 from 1:00 to 2:00 pm (ET). This seminar will feature a discussion about COVID and wastewater surveillance in Quebec.