Description of Session
The Ebola outbreak in West Africa has brought the consequences of a possible pandemic to the forefront of public health concerns in Senegal. The country has embraced a “one health” approach to surveillance, and community-level data are a key element of this approach. We developed and tested a community event-based surveillance system for 8 priority infectious diseases of human origin and 6 of zoonotic origin. Community workers use Short Message Service (SMS) messages to transmit possible cases from the field to a district health or veterinary post. Theses “signals” are then followed up for verification by a nurse or livestock agent. Data are captured through a RapidPro application called mInfoSante and can be viewed through a dashboard. More than 1,700 alerts have been received since November 2017. Nearly 1000 of these were verified and over 600 were classified as suspected cases by nurses or livestock agents upon follow-up. This session will present our experience with the system in six pilot districts. We will also feature a live demonstration of the mInfoSante dashboard. We will discuss our challenges in developing and implementing the community-based surveillance system, including the technology and its use by community health volunteers, nurses, livestock agents, and veterinarians.
