Surveillance of communicable diseases for decision-making in Egypt: 2006–2013

The Egyptian Ministry of Health and Population surveillance system provides data about notifiable communicable diseases. This study aimed to provide information for decision-making to reduce the burden of communicable diseases in Egypt by analysis of the surveillance data for 2006–2013 to identify trends in the incidence of the diseases by governorate, season, age and sex. Composite risk-index scores were estimated to rank the 27 Egyptian governorates into 3 groups: high, medium and low risk. The 15 diseases with the highest incidence were food and waterborne diseases [5 diseases], vaccine-preventable diseases [7 diseases] and others, e.g. hepatitis C infection. Bloody diarrhoea and typhoid had the high incidence for 2006–2013. There were 11 high-risk governorates; Ismailia had the highest risk-index score. The findings suggest the need for specific interventions related to environmental sanitation and improving the childhood immunization programme, particularly in the high-risk governorates