The Use of the Mobile Phone for Real-Time Notifications of Public Health Threats in Three Mali Health Districts between 2020-2021

Abstract

The Ministry in charge of Health in Mali has decided to involve the community in the fight against public health threats using mobile phones according to WHO guidelines. In this regard, a guide and standard tools for community-based electronic surveillance have been developed and tested in a pilot phase in the Kadiolo health district. After the training of the actors (community health workers “ASC”, health workers and epidemiological surveillance officers), all were equipped with telephony and data collection tools. To this end, CHWs send a coded message to health centers and districts every day. Then these messages are confirmed or invalidated by health workers through an investigation and the taking of samples for transport to the lab. The number of cases notified by CHWs via the electronic system was 1397 cases in 444 days, with 170 cases of illnesses and 1227 cases of events. This electronic early warning system enabled the notification of cases in less than 24 hours at the higher level. Also, the completeness of sending messages by district varied between [71 and 83%] and the cumulative average completeness of the three districts was around 77%. On average 72% of CHWs sent at least one message with a notification of 3.14 cases of illnesses and events per day. Mobile telephone is a suitable and less expensive means for the notification of diseases and events in real time. Keywords: Community health workers, Events, Diseases, Real-time notification, Mobile telephony, Community-based electronic surveillance.