Description of Session
Acute encephalitis syndrome (AES) is a constellation of clinical signs and/or symptoms which presents with acute fever, acute change in mental status and/or new onset of seizures which are caused due to inflammation of the brain. Due to its complex multiple etiologies, AES continues to be one of the most difficult syndromes due to its high morbidity and mortality rates in the Indian states. In 2018, Uttar Pradesh recorded 8% AES deaths and experienced AES outbreaks for a number of years. Delay in diagnosis and lack of skilled healthcare professionals at the primary healthcare facilities were identified as the major contributors to high case fatality rate. In rural Uttar Pradesh, most of the patients seek treatment from traditional healers as a first contact in the community causing significant delay in treatment. In 2015, the government of Uttar Pradesh upgraded 104 primary and secondary healthcare facilities to encephalitis treatment centers (ETCs) to provide basic health care and supportive management. On request from the government of Uttar Pradesh, PATH offered a technical solution to monitor health commodities at all the established ETCs. The solution comprises of a mobile app to capture availability of health commodities and essential logistics including trained health workforce at the facility level through an online dashboard. Healthcare personnel were trained and provided hands-on support to capture the data on a weekly basis for secondary healthcare facilities and fortnightly for primary healthcare facilities. Data was uploaded to a google spreadsheet linked to a Tableau online dashboard. The online dashboard was shared with key decision makers at sub-district, district and state level to understand real time status on the availability of different health commodities, equipment, key essential drugs and logistics, with a visual depiction of functionality status of the healthcare facilities, caseloads including availability of trained manpower and health outcomes.
