A NATIONAL SENTINEL SURVEILLANCE NETWORK FOR THE MEASUREMENT OF ILL-HEALTH IN SOUTH-AFRICA - A PREREQUISITE FOR EPIDEMIOLOGIC RESEARCH AND HEALTH-PLANNING

Data on births, on deaths by cause and on morbidity are essential in p lanning appropriate health interventions, but the scarcity of these da ta in South Africa is striking. Some of the limitations of national mo rtality and morbidity data collection systems are reviewed. In order t o improve the usefulness of vital statistical information, it is propo sed that active disease monitoring be introduced in a number of survei llance sites where the population has been properly enumerated. A netw ork of these sites would routinely gather information on births and de aths by cause and on a List of conditions that are: (i) easy to identi fy clinically; (ii) would bring most people to the attention of health personnel; and (iii) would indicate failure of health service provisi on, environmental control or resource allocation. The measurement of t he geographical variation of a number of conditions, coupled with geog raphical information on health care indicators and risk and health pro motive factors in each site, would facilitate the planning of interven tions in a rational manner.