Epidemiological Health Information

Epidemiological health information is vital for planning and managing health services. This chapter examines importance of different diseases, local health surveillance systems and availability of data and how to use it. Information is reviewed for typical patterns of morbidity, mortality, and burden of disease. Local epidemiological data are useful to estimate expected numbers of cases, geographical access to health facilities, quality of services, and the coverage achieved for different programmes. Importance of understanding seasonality on health data and indicators of inequalities is explained. A local health information checklist is given.