ABSTRACT: This article, based on literature review, addresses relevant conceptual and institutional aspects of Epidemiological Surveillance (ES) in public health policies as well as the use of the term "surveillance" and the incorporation of the term "epidemiological". Epidemiological surveillance in the context of sanitary legislation focuses on diseases of mandatory notification to health authorities which in time has become one of the priorities of the National System for Epidemiological Surveillance. There is an effort to describe factors impacting ES institutionalization where the difficulty of adoption and/or object redefinition, methods and proposals are focused. Due to its scope in the process of health decentralization, principally at the municipal level, this represents an effective opportunity not only for the evaluation of ES policies, but for the understanding of mechanisms remitting to the use of the new terminology concerning "Public Health Surveillance", internationally adopted since the 90's.
Epidemiological surveillance; Diseases notification; Institutionalization