Community-based surveillance: Guiding principles

The millions of volunteers that make up the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement are vital in providing frontline response when emergencies strike, as well as in the context of longer-term activities aimed at improving the health of communities. One area of strength within the Red Cross/Red Crescent (RC) Movement is responding to community disease outbreaks. Many outbreaks begin with a cluster of unwell people, or sudden deaths in a community, that is not detected early enough by traditional surveillance systems. Often the community is aware of the health threat but the people who can mobilize response resources receive this information too late to limit the spread of a disease and save as many lives as possible.