We examined incidence rates and median age of case patients in the Veneto Region for 2000-2007 period using two data sources: the mandatory notification of infections diseases and the Italian Paediatric Sentinel Surveillance System of Vaccine Preventable Diseases.
This framework integrates indicator-based surveillance (e.g. mandatory notification of infectious diseases) and event-based surveillance into one system [ 5].
Between 1 January 2000 and 31 December 2011, 497 cases of invasive meningococcal disease (mandatory notification is required in Western Australia) were notified to the Communicable Disease Control Directorate (CDCD), the central public health unit of Western Australia.
Moreover, our findings are consistent with reports of listeriosis in Lombardy by the mandatory notification system of infectious diseases in the same period.
In Mexico, influenza is a disease of mandatory notification, and the database includes all cases reported from 597 sentinel health units, including outpatient clinics as well as hospitals from all 32 states.
Where the new IHRs differ from former reporting requirements is in a change in diseases for mandatory notification and a more generic requirement that countries report any 'extraordinary public health event which constitutes a public health risk to other States through the international spread of disease, and may require a coordinated international response' [ 58].
In Italy, measles is a disease subject to mandatory notification, and according to the routine procedure, physicians must report suspected measles cases to their LHU within 48 hours of diagnosis.
The notifiable diseases system requires mandatory notification by practitioners and biologists to collect clinical and biological information about recent symptomatic dengue cases.
In the Veneto Region, from 2000 to 2007, a total of 99,351 varicella cases were reported through mandatory notifications of infections diseases.
In the developed world they are mostly based on mandatory notifications of infectious diseases and more recently on laboratory [ 8- 11], while in developing countries are based on case reports and epidemics notifications [ 12], as well as on hospital sentinel surveillance [ 13].
