Village health team functionality and adherence to reporting requirements for community-based surveillance in Kasese, Uganda, 2016

Abstract

Introduction: Uganda and particularly Kasese District has a high number and frequency of disease outbreaks whose detection and reporting at community level is usually absent or delayed. Most outbreaks in Kasese are detected at health facility level although the earliest point of detection should be at community level, an indicator of a poorly functioning community surveillance system. According to the Community Based Disease/Event Surveillance system in Uganda, Community Health Workers (CHWs) commonly referred to as Village Health Team members (VHTs) are expected to play a key role in Community Based Surveillance so as to enable early detection and response to priority diseases/events at community level to the nearest health facility. This study aimed to assess CHW functionality and adherence to Community Based Disease/Event Surveillance (CBS) guidelines as well as factors associated with it in Kasese so as to identify ways of enabling CHWs to improve CBS.