Ace the Surveillance and Disease Reporting Challenge 2026 – Master Public Health with Confidence!

The idea being tested is what makes a surveillance system passive: it depends on voluntary reporting of events rather than investigators actively seeking information. Both FDA’s Adverse Events Reporting System and the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System operate this way. They collect reports about adverse events from drugs, biologics, or vaccines after they reach the public, and these reports come from clinicians, patients, manufacturers, and the public as they notice something occurring. No one is routinely and proactively contacted to confirm every case; instead, reports accumulate over time to highlight potential safety signals.

National Wastewater Surveillance System, on the other hand, gathers data by actively sampling and testing wastewater across communities to monitor for pathogens. This is a form of environmental surveillance that relies on systematic, ongoing data collection rather than spontaneous reporting of illness. Therefore, the systems that are passive are AERS and VAERS.