Laboratory of Virology, Centre Pasteur of Cameroon, Yaoundé, Cameroon.
Laboratory of Epidemiology, Centre Pasteur of Cameroon, Yaoundé, Cameroon.
Influenza Other Respir Viruses. 2020 Sep;14(5):491-498. doi: 10.1111/irv.12747. Epub 2020 May 14.
Rapid reporting of surveillance data is essential to better inform national prevention and control strategies.
We compare the newly implemented smartphone-based system to the former paper-based and short message service (SMS) for collecting influenza epidemiological data in Cameroon.
Of the 13 sites which collect data from persons with influenza-like illness (ILI), six sites send data through the EWS, while seven sites make use of the paper-based system and SMS. We used four criteria for the comparison of the data collection tools: completeness, timeliness, conformity and cost.
Regarding the different collection tools, data sent by the EWS were significantly more complete (97.6% vs 81.6% vs 44.8%), prompt (74.4% vs n/a vs 60.7%) and of better quality (93.7% vs 76.1% vs 84.0%) than data sent by the paper-based system and SMS, respectively. The average cost of sending a datum by a sentinel site per week was higher for the forms (5.0 USD) than for the EWS (0.9 USD) and SMS (0.1 USD). The number of outpatient visits and subsequently all surveillance data decreased across the years 2017-2019 together with the influenza positivity rate from 30.7% to 28.3%. Contrarily, the proportion of influenza-associated ILI to outpatient load was highest in the year 2019 (0.37 per 100 persons vs 0.28 and 0.26 in the other 2 years).
All sentinel sites and even other disease surveillance systems are expected to use this tool in the near term future due to its satisfactory performance and cost.
快速报告监测数据对于更好地为国家预防和控制策略提供信息至关重要。
我们比较了新实施的基于智能手机的系统与前一个基于纸质和短消息服务（SMS）的系统，以收集喀麦隆的流感流行病学数据。
在收集流感样病例（ILI）数据的 13 个站点中，有 6 个站点通过 EWS 发送数据，而 7 个站点使用纸质系统和 SMS。我们使用四个标准来比较数据收集工具：完整性、及时性、一致性和成本。
关于不同的收集工具，EWS 发送的数据明显更完整（97.6%比 81.6%比 44.8%）、及时（74.4%比无比 60.7%）和质量更好（93.7%比 76.1%比 84.0%），比纸质系统和 SMS 分别发送的数据。每个哨点每周通过表单发送数据的平均成本（5.0 美元）高于 EWS（0.9 美元）和 SMS（0.1 美元）。2017-2019 年期间，门诊就诊次数和随之而来的所有监测数据以及流感阳性率均有所下降，从 30.7%降至 28.3%。相反，流感相关 ILI 占门诊就诊人数的比例在 2019 年最高（每 100 人 0.37 比其他 2 年的 0.28 和 0.26）。
由于其性能和成本令人满意，预计所有哨点甚至其他疾病监测系统都将在不久的将来使用该工具。
