ASSESSING THE ATTRIBUTES AND EFFECTIVENESS ON THE IMPLEMENTATION OF ELECTRONIC CASE-BASED SURVEILLANCE SYSTEM FROM 2018-2020 IN BOMBALI DISTRICT, SIERRA LEONE

Abstract

During the EVD 2014 outbreak, Sierra Leone lacked an effective infectious disease reporting system. To address this challenge, Sierra Leone introduced the electronic Case-Based Disease Surveillance (eCBDS) in 2018 as a tool for early notification and response to outbreaks and public health concerns. However, there is limited knowledge of the effectiveness of eCBDS system. We, therefore, evaluated the system’s performance in line with its objectives.  We conducted a mixed qualitative and quantitative descriptive cross-sectional study in Bombali District using the updated CDC guidelines for evaluating surveillance systems. We purposively selected 23 stakeholders and 10 health facilities. A semi-structured questionnaire adapted from updated CDC guidelines was used for data collection through face-to-face interviews and record reviews for the period 2018 to 2020. The major qualitative findings were narrated and summarized based on their contents to determine usefulness, simplicity, flexibility, acceptability, stability, and representativeness of the surveillance system. The quantitative findings were summarized into frequencies, proportion, median, and range using Microsoft Excel. All 23 (100%) respondents indicated that the eCBDS is useful for timely detection of epidemic diseases. Most of the staff 20 (87 %) indicated that the eCBDS is simple, easy to input data, to do timely reporting. None of the facilities were doing descriptive analysis by person, place, or time. There was a lack of internet data in one facility. Two (20%) of 10 facilities reported faulty device and disappearance of the application on the tablet have interrupted the full operation of the eCBDS. Our evaluation of the eCBDS system in the Bombali district shows that the system is simple, useful, and acceptable to users. The stability was affected by lack of internet data and faulty devices have interrupted the full operation of the system. Therefore, we recommend that the DHMT orientate staff in troubleshooting the devices and data analysis.

Keywords: eCBDS early, notification, prompt response.