Centre de Support en Santé International, BP 972, Moursal, N'Djamena, Chad.
Institut de Recherche en Elevage pour le Développement, BP 433, Farcha, N'Djamena, Chad.
Acta Trop. 2020 Jun;206:105446. doi: 10.1016/j.actatropica.2020.105446. Epub 2020 Mar 14.
As part of the activities of a project to estimate burden of rabies and vaccine demand in Chad, funded by the GAVI Alliance, we set up a free hotline service to guide the population and related public services in the event of an animal bite. This short communication presents the data collected on use of the hotline and describes the value of such a mobile phone service. Flyers, posters and radio advertisements distributed information on the hotline. Not every conversation was systematically registered, but we gathered information from 345 calls in total, including caller location and reason for the call as well as the advice and recommendation given. Although more calls were received from urban zones, the hotline was also accessed from rural locations. More than half of the calls came from the public followed by about 1/3 of calls from health workers and 10% of calls from veterinary workers. Background information on the animal bites mirror results from previous studies, especially the alarming lack of access to health and veterinary facilities in the country. Based on network provider information on incoming and outgoing calls, we estimate that on average 11 queries were handled per day. The hotline enabled the study team to give guidance to the public and to health and veterinary professionals and to monitor vaccine stock in the study areas of the project.
作为由全球疫苗免疫联盟资助的估计乍得狂犬病负担和疫苗需求项目的活动之一，我们设立了免费热线服务，以便在发生动物咬伤时为民众和相关公共服务提供指导。本简讯介绍了收集到的有关热线使用情况的数据，并描述了这种手机服务的价值。传单、海报和广播广告宣传了热线信息。并非每一次通话都被系统记录，但我们总共收集了 345 次通话的信息，包括来电者的位置和来电原因，以及提供的建议和推荐。尽管更多的电话来自城区，但农村地区也可以拨打热线。超过一半的电话来自公众，其次是约三分之一的卫生工作者，以及 10%的兽医工作者。动物咬伤的背景信息反映了之前研究的结果，尤其是该国令人震惊地缺乏获得卫生和兽医设施的机会。根据网络提供商有关来电和去电的信息，我们估计平均每天处理 11 次查询。该热线使研究小组能够为公众以及卫生和兽医专业人员提供指导，并监测项目研究地区的疫苗库存。
