Mobile based Notifiable Disease Surveillance – Case for Kenya

Abstract

Identifying infectious disease outbreaks in their early stages is an important task, both for governments and international organizations working in the health sector. This study reviewed the notifiable disease reporting systems in Kenya with an aim of understanding their strengths and weaknesses. We evaluated the performance of the present notifiable disease reporting systems, assessed the preparedness of the disease notifiers for the task of reporting notifiable diseases, assessed the readiness of people who participate in disease reporting in the use of computers and mobile systems in disease surveillance, and we developed a mobile based disease surveillance prototype that can report and analyze notifiable disease data to recognize disease outbreaks early. The study targeted medical personnel who presently participate in the reporting and analysis of notifiable disease data in the Nairobi Metropolitan Region. Mobile systems are best to improve the disease reporting and analysis process because of their low cost, widespread use and minimum training required.