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The fourth type
of performance indicator focuses on laboratory performance, and is most applicable to
surveillance systems for infectious and chronic diseases, exposures to toxins, and other
health conditions for which laboratory analysis and reporting of results from specimens
constitute a significant part of the surveillance system. Timely reporting of laboratory
results helps ensure that a source of infection or a cause of disease or disability is
rapidly identified and thoroughly investigated within a community so that appropriate
public health action to control or prevent it can be taken in a timely fashion. In the
case of AFP and measles surveillance, performance indicators are focused on timely
reporting of laboratory results, and in the case of AFP, viral isolation rates. |