Epidemiology and Surveillance

The Epidemiology and Surveillance Unit is part of the Public Health Branch in the Department of Health. The role of the Unit is to support the public health system by monitoring, analyzing and reporting on the occurrence, spread, and severity of communicable and non-communicable diseases and conditions in Manitoba.

The Surveillance Unit at Health systematically receives and manages reportable communicable disease data as prescribed by The Public Health Act. The Unit is involved in notifying public health offices across Manitoba of cases of communicable disease, and managing the flow of information to and from these offices in support of regional public health investigations.

As defined by the World Health Organization (WHO), Public Health Surveillance is the continuous, systematic collection, analysis and interpretation of health-related data needed for the planning, implementation, and evaluation of public health practice.

Working in close collaboration with the Surveillance Unit, the epidemiologists at Health analyze the case-based data collected by the Surveillance Unit to create reports and updates that can be used for planning, implementing, and evaluating public health interventions and programs. Epidemiology is a discipline that considers the distribution of disease, and focuses on questions, such as: who is getting the disease within a population, as well as when and where it is occurring. Epidemiologic information can be used to detect and monitor trends or changes in the population’s health, as well as monitor health events (such as disease outbreaks) and determinants of health.

The WHO defines Epidemiology as the study of the distribution and determinants of health-related states or events (including disease), and the application of this study to the control of diseases and other health problems

Together, the Epidemiology and Surveillance Unit works to support the public health system and the health of Manitobans.

Surveillance and Epidemiology model

In the spirit of honour, respect, and reconciliation, Manitoba Health would like to acknowledge these provincial lands. We are in Treaty territories One through Five on the homelands of the Anishinaabeg Oji-Cree and Ojibwe, the Cree, Dakota, and Dené peoples, and homeland of the Métis Nation.

Manitoba Health
Epidemiology and Surveillance Unit
4th Floor - 300 Carlton St.
Winnipeg MB  R3B 3M9  CANADA