dhis2-users team mailing list archive

["Alvin B. Marcelo" <alvin.marcelo@xxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Knut,

My two cents as we recently experienced a measles 'outbreak'.

First, better not to call it an 'outbreak'. Health officials are very sensitive about the term. We can gain their confidence if we don't "presume" an outbreak by labeling it as such on the interface.

Second, we missed this 'outbreak' in Metro Manila (of all places!) because the health workers waited for official lab confirmation (which takes 3 weeks in this part of the world). The health workers forgot to execute the protocol that if the 3Cs are present (colds, cohryza, conjunctivitis) they should suspect measles and immediately vaccinate the surrounding children. 

Lesson: if any child comes in with any one of the 3Cs, the information system should alert them for the other 2Cs. The 3Cs will be reported upwards and it will be a syndromic report and not an outbreak report.

The first syndromes (in retrospect) started coming in as early as August but it was only December when the trend became evident (due to the lack of near-real time reporting and health worker forgetting the protocol).

I fully support this initiative. Such a system, if it works, could have saved lives in the Philippines. A better name might be DHIS2 syndromic surveillance decision support system with the ability to inform officials of dangerous trends.

We'll leave it up to the health officials to call it an outbreak.

Alvin




Sent from my BB Curve 9320

-----Original Message-----
From: Knut Staring <knutst@xxxxxxxxx>
Sender: "Dhis2-users"
 <dhis2-users-bounces+alvin.marcelo=gmail.com@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>Date: Sat, 15 Feb 2014 08:16:23 
To: dhis2-users@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx<dhis2-users@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [Dhis2-users] Maps of outbreaks

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