The research paper "The Evolution of EBS in Oman: From Planning Stages to Practical Application" examines Oman’s development and pilot implementation of an Event-Based Surveillance (EBS) system to complement its existing indicator-based disease surveillance. Integrated into the national Tarassud electronic platform, the system gathers signals from health, animal, environmental, laboratory, and other sectors to detect unusual public health threats earlier. The paper describes the planning process, multisectoral collaboration, pilot results, challenges, and priorities for national expansion.
Key Insights
Oman developed EBS to complement traditional indicator-based surveillance and improve the early detection of unusual or emerging public health threats.
The EBS module was integrated into the existing Tarassud electronic surveillance platform rather than creating a separate system.
The system follows five main steps: reporting, triage, verification, risk assessment, and response and feedback.
A six-month pilot was conducted in Dakhliyah and North Sharqiyah governorates beginning in December 2023.
During 2024, 35 signals were reported, of which 18 were considered significant and useful public health events.
EBS supported earlier detection of diseases and pathogens including Legionella, rabies, brucellosis, Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever, and hand-foot-and-mouth disease.
The system enabled formal real-time reporting of zoonotic disease signals from the animal health sector, strengthening One Health collaboration.
Key challenges included integrating EBS with existing surveillance systems, maintaining multisectoral participation, avoiding duplicate reports, and limited community-level reporting.
Oman plans to expand EBS nationally while strengthening digital alerts, training, intersectoral coordination, community participation, and potentially using artificial intelligence for signal classification and risk prioritization.
