Department of Global Public Health, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden
Focus 1000, Freetown, Sierra Leone.
BMJ Glob Health. 2020 Dec;5(12). doi: 10.1136/bmjgh-2020-003936.
Community engagement and community-based surveillance are essential components of responding to infectious disease outbreaks, but real-time data reporting remains a challenge. In the 2014-2016 Ebola outbreak in Sierra Leone, the Social Mobilisation Action Consortium was formed to scale-up structured, data-driven community engagement. The consortium became operational across all 14 districts and supported an expansive network of 2500 community mobilisers, 6000 faith leaders and 42 partner radio stations. The benefit of a more agile digital reporting system became apparent within few months of implementing paper-based reporting given the need to rapidly use the data to inform the fast-evolving epidemic. In this paper, we aim to document the design, deployment and implementation of a digital reporting system used in six high transmission districts. We highlight lessons learnt from our experience in scaling up the digital reporting system during an unprecedented public health crisis. The lessons learnt from our experience in Sierra Leone have important implications for designing and implementing similar digital reporting systems for community engagement and community-based surveillance during public health emergencies.
社区参与和基于社区的监测是应对传染病疫情的重要组成部分，但实时数据报告仍然是一个挑战。在 2014-2016 年塞拉利昂的埃博拉疫情中，成立了社会动员行动联盟，以扩大有组织的、以数据为驱动的社区参与。该联盟在所有 14 个区运作，并支持一个由 2500 名社区动员者、6000 名宗教领袖和 42 个合作伙伴广播电台组成的广泛网络。鉴于需要迅速利用数据为快速演变的疫情提供信息，在实施基于纸张的报告几个月后，更灵活的数字报告系统的好处变得明显。本文旨在记录在六个高传播区使用的数字报告系统的设计、部署和实施情况。我们强调了在前所未有的公共卫生危机期间扩大数字报告系统规模所获得的经验教训。我们在塞拉利昂获得的经验教训对于设计和实施公共卫生紧急情况下社区参与和基于社区的监测的类似数字报告系统具有重要意义。
