Strengthening public health response to air pollution in India: evaluation of an acute respiratory illness sentinel surveillance system, 2022
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5365/wpsar.2025.16.5.1244Keywords:
surveillance, epidemiology, environmental health, air pollution, climate changeAbstract
In 2019, 1.67 million deaths in India were attributed to air pollution. Recognizing the significant risks to public health posed by air pollution, India established a sentinel surveillance programme to monitor trends in hospital attendances for acute respiratory illnesses in cities that regularly failed to meet national air quality standards. By combining data on acute respiratory illness attendance and air quality, the overarching aim of the surveillance programme is to generate information to support action to mitigate the adverse impacts of air pollution. The programme was expanded in 2020, but has not yet been evaluated. Therefore, we selected eight sentinel sites, all secondary/tertiary hospitals in two cities in Haryana state (Gurugram and Faridabad), and assessed their performance against six surveillance system attributes (usefulness, simplicity, data quality, timeliness, acceptability, stability) from January to March 2022. Central and district programme officers, clinicians, data entry operators and nursing staff were interviewed using a semi-structured questionnaire and records were reviewed. Generally, the system was found to perform well, particularly in terms of usefulness, simplicity, timeliness and acceptability. However, several weaknesses were identified, notably a lack of training for hospital staff and feedback; moreover, external factors had affected the stability of the system. Based on our findings, we recommended implementing a comprehensive training plan, creating a formal feedback mechanism, transitioning reporting to the Integrated Health Information Platform, and making greater use of the platform’s data analysis and visualization features to streamline air pollution risk communication to local health authorities and the public.
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Copyright (c) 2026 Nivethitha Navaneetha Krishnan, Rameshwar Sorokhaibam, Purvi Patel, Ramesh Chandra, Aakash Shrivastava
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