Mobile technologies for disease surveillance in humans and animals.

Mobile technologies for disease surveillance in humans and animals. Onderstepoort J Vet Res. 2014;81(2):E1-5 Authors: Mwabukusi M, Karimuribo ED, Rweyemamu MM, Beda E Abstract A paper-based disease reporting system has been associated with a number of challenges. These include difficulties to submit hard copies of the disease surveillance forms because of poor road infrastructure, weather conditions or challenging terrain, particularly in the developing countries. The system demands re-entry of the data at data processing and analysis points, thus making it prone to introduction of errors during this process. All these challenges contribute to delayed acquisition, processing and response to disease events occurring in remote hard to reach areas. Our study piloted the use of mobile phones in order to transmit near to real-time data from remote districts in Tanzania (Ngorongoro and Ngara), Burundi (Muyinga) and Zambia (Kazungula and Sesheke). Two technologies namely, digital and short messaging services were used to capture and transmit disease event data in the animal and human health sectors in the study areas based on a server-client model. Smart phones running the Android operating system (minimum required version: Android 1.6), and which supported open source application, Epicollect, as well as the Open Data Kit application, were used in the study. These phones allowed collection of geo-tagged data, with the opportun...
Source: Rural Remote Health - Category: Rural Health Authors: Tags: Onderstepoort J Vet Res Source Type: research