Surveillance projects for selected diseases.

Disease surveillance systems constitute the foundation of appropriate health plans. Surveillance data collection components at best are dependent on a series of contingencies. In developing countries scattered static health centres may result in biased and practically unusable data. A system is here described for collecting data from a sample of persons chosen for their statistical representation of the entire population. Monthly interviews can provide both prevalence and incidence data at low cost using paramedical personnel. Continuing work in this area could provide developing countries with alternative methods of defining their population-nutrition-communicable disease problems.