Surveillance and Risk Assessment Division

The Surveillance and Risk Assessment Division (SRAD) provides overall strategic direction and coordination for CIDPC's HIV/AIDS surveillance and epidemiological work. SRAD comprises five main sections:

• HIV/AIDS Surveillance
• HIV/AIDS Epidemiology
• HIV Drug Resistance and Field Surveillance
• Notifiable Diseases
• Modelling and Projections

SRAD's mandate is to describe the epidemiology of HIV infection in Canada and to monitor and assess the temporal (time-related), geographic and demographic trends in the HIV epidemic in Canada. To that end, the Division:

• helps to maintain a national surveillance database of positive HIV test reports and reported AIDS cases
• performs data analysis, synthesis, publication/presentation and dissemination
• organizes and hosts national meetings on issues of importance to the understanding of HIV epidemiology and surveillance
• provides technical and financial support for extramural targeted studies on HIV epidemiology and surveillance

The Division's responsibilities include reporting and analysis of HIV and AIDS surveillance data collected from all provinces and territories in Canada. As part of this work, SRAD publishes HIV and AIDS in Canada: Surveillance Report, a semi-annual report that summarizes and interprets HIV and AIDS surveillance data at the national level. An annual report on HIV strain and primary drug resistance in Canada is also produced. In addition, the Division also disseminates HIV and AIDS epidemiological data through other publications, such as the Inventory of HIV Prevalence and Incidence Studies in Canada and HIV/AIDS Epi Updates.

Extramural studies supported by SRAD focus on the prevalence and incidence of HIV in specific population subgroups, taking into account the population size of these subgroups, to help make national estimates of HIV prevalence and incidence.

The Division also has a mandate to assess the epidemiology of HIV/tuberculosis co-infection in Canada, to develop a national surveillance network of HIV-associated risk behaviours, and to investigate outbreaks of HIV infection. Furthermore, the Division provides modelling and projections support and coordinates a program of field surveillance officers to enhance surveillance of HIV and other retroviruses. Finally, SRAD's Notifiable Diseases Section manages surveillance data on notifiable diseases received by the provinces and territories.

Publications

Links

Contact us at:

Surveillance and Risk Assessment Division
PL 0602B
100 Eglantine Driveway
Tunney's Pasture
Ottawa, ON K1A 0K9

What are Surveillance and Epidemiology?

Epidemiology refers to the study of the occurrence, distribution and determining factors associated with health events and diseases in a population (i.e., the study of how often diseases or health events occur in different groups and why). The aims of epidemiology are to discover the sources and causes of health events and disease occurrences and to find ways to control and prevent them.

Surveillance - defined as the ongoing collection, analysis, interpretation and dissemination of health-related data - is a key component of epidemiology. The objective of surveillance is to assess the health status of populations, detect changes in disease trends or changes in how the disease is distributed, define priorities, assist in the prevention and control of the disease, and monitor and evaluate related treatment and prevention programs.