Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) Implements Syndromic Surveillance for Early Outbreak Detection

Key facts

• The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) introduced a syndromic surveillance approach in 2025 to track symptom patterns and provide early warnings for potential disease outbreaks.
• The surveillance method focuses on primary symptoms including fever, cough, diarrhoea, neurological symptoms, and rashes to detect clusters before laboratory confirmation.
• ICMR has developed standardised syndrome-wise pathogen lists categorised into Priority 1 (High risk), Priority 2 (Medium risk), and Priority 3 (Low risk) to manage public health caseloads.
• The tracked respiratory viruses include seasonal influenza A, seasonal influenza B, SARS-CoV-2, respiratory syncytial virus, adenovirus, human respiroviruses 1 and 3, human rubulaviruses 2 and 4 (formerly human parainfluenzaviruses 1-4), human metapneumovirus, and measles virus.
• The bacterial pathogens identified for surveillance include Streptococcus pneumoniae, Mycoplasma pneumoniae, Corynebacterium diphtheriae, Haemophilus influenzae, Mycobacterium tuberculosis, Bordetella pertussis, and Gram-negative bacilli such as K. pneumoniae and P. aeruginosa.