The IDSR Disease Surveillance System in Kenya

The IDSR Disease Surveillance System in Kenya

The IDSR Disease Surveillance System in Kenya

Communicable diseases remain the leading cause of morbidity, mortality and disability in African communities. While much progress has been made in the last decade towards improving national and regional capacity for effective surveillance and response, communicable disease such as cholera, viral hemorrhagic fevers, yellow fever, influenza, malaria, HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis remain high priorities for national public health programs owing to their public health significance. Conditions and events such as malnutrition and maternal deaths are also critical targets for national public health programs. Additionally, non-communicable diseases such as hypertension and diabetes are gaining prominence.

To address the challenges of disease surveillance and response, the 48th World Health Organization Regional Committee for Africa meeting in Harare, Zimbabwe, adopted resolution AFRO/RC48/R2 in September 1998. The strategy is called Integrated Disease Surveillance and Response (IDSR) [1]. The goal of IDSR is to improve the ability of all levels of the system to detect, confirm, and respond to diseases and other public health events in order to reduce high levels of illness, death and disability. In addition, the International Health Regulations (IHR) was adopted on 23 May 2005 by the fifty-eighth World Health Assembly in Geneva, Switzerland through Resolution WHA 58.3 [2]. IHR is a legally binding instrument designed to help protect all States from the international spread of disease. Most importantly, IHR calls for strengthening national core capacities for surveillance and response throughout national health systems [3].

After adoption of the IDSR strategy by the Ministry of Health (MOH) in 2006, Kenya now has a total of 36 reportable priority diseases categorized as epidemic prone diseases, diseases targeted for eradication/elimination, disease of public health importance and public health events for internal concern (IHR 2005). These priority diseases have different reporting requirements and timelines and thresholds are stipulated in the IDSR technical guidelines. IDSR promotes the rational use of resources for collection, analysis and interpretation of health data and dissemination of the resulting information to those who need them for public health action.

Integrated Disease Surveillance and Response (IDSR) Data Flow 

idsr-data-flow

The next article will elaborate further on the, “Reporting Systems for Disease Surveillance in Kenya” stay tuned 🙂

References 

[1] Division of Disease Surveillance an Response (DDSR). IDSR STrategy. Available from: http://www.ddsr.or.ke/idsr/strategy.php

[2] World Health Organisation, International Health Regulations (2005), 2008.

[3] Ministry of Public Health and Sanitation, Integrated Disease Surveillance and Response in Kenya: Technical Guidelines 2012, 2012

Primary source

Rachel Wanjiru, Ian Njeru, mSOS/DST Weekly Mobile Reporing Stakeholders, John Gichangi, David Kareko, Annastacia Muange, Sophia Karanja, Ngina Kisangau, Boniface Waweru, Raphael Pundo, Oliver Munyao, Steve Waweru, Daniel Langat, Lyndah Makayotto, Mitsuru Toda (2016) mSOS/IDSR Weekely Mobile Reporting: Training Manual, Ministry of Health Kenya, Nairobi

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Kenyan agricultural economist, wins the 2016 Norman Borlang award

Kenyan agricultural economist, wins the 2016 Norman Borlang award

Kenyan agricultural economist, wins the 2016 Norman Borlang award

Kenyan agricultural economist, Dr. Mude Andrew has been named the 2016 winner of the Norman Borlang award for his work in developing livestock insurance programme for communities in remote and arid lands.

Mude and his team developed an index based livestock insurance on 2008 which uses satellites to foretell droughts and pay the insured farmers long before the animal is lost.

Dr. Andrew Mude (right) during a press conference

Dr. Andrew Mude (right) during a press conference

The State Department of Livestock has adopted the system and is piloting it in Wajir and Turkana Counties. So far, nearly 20, 000 households have benefitted from Dr. Mude’s index based insurance. Last week, 290 herders received payment worth Kshs.  3,000,000 after the satellites showed a decline of forage material.

Dr. Mude is currently based at the International Livestock Research Institute and he is the second Kenyan to receive the $10,000 Norman Borlang award for field research and application.  In 2013 Dr. Charity Mutegi and the Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organisation (KARO) won the award for her work on combating aflatoxin.

Mude will formally receive the award on 12th October, 2016 in USA.

Dr. Mude said, “From data available from satellites which gives very accurate readings on the amount of green forage available, and that green is closely related to the health of livestock. And we can use a range of mdoels to e able to use this data to create what is called an index. So any particular area that suffers from shortfalls or deficiencies of forage which can be captured by satellites that would trigger a payment

This post is a transcription of the NTV news posted online on 30th August, 2016 and available at: http://ntv.nation.co.ke/news/national/2725528-3363638-ihbsrlz/index.html

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Prioritization of Zoonotic Diseases in Kenya, 2015

Prioritization of Zoonotic Diseases in Kenya, 2015

Prioritization of Zoonotic Diseases in Kenya, 2015

A recent publication (24 August 2016) by Munyua et al., shows that the ranked priority disease list for Kenya having emphasis towards Neglected Tropical Diseases, with the top five being (Anthrax, Trypanosomiasis, Rabies, Brucellosis, and Rift Valley Fever). Find out more at the  link below:

http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0161576

journal.pone.0161576.t003

Source of image: http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0161576.t003

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Chinese medical workers will survey Tibet to prepare a treatment plan for controlling echinococcosis

Chinese medical workers will survey Tibet to prepare a treatment plan for controlling echinococcosis

Chinese medical workers will survey Tibet to prepare a treatment plan for controlling echinococcosis

Picture of echinococcus egg Source: http://www.dpd.cdc.gov/dpdx/HTML/ImageLibrary/Echinococcosis_il.htm

Picture of echinococcus egg (Ssource)

Beijing, Aug 23 (PTI) Chinese medical workers will survey Tibet to prepare a treatment plan for controlling echinococcosis, a fatal parasitic tapeworm disease affecting herding communities.

A total of 920 doctors and medical workers, including 624 from Tibet and 296 from the rest of the country, will be sent to 364 villages in 70 counties and districts of Tibet by the end of this month, Li Bin, deputy director of the regional disease control and prevention centre, said.

Some 72,800 people will be covered under the scheme.

The field investigation will be finished within a month, and the investigators will create an investigation report and treatment plan.

“Hopefully the treatment can begin by the end of this year,” Li said.

Echinococcosis also known as Hydatid disease is a potentially lethal zoonotic disease caused by tapeworms. It mainly affects herding areas in Chinas Gansu, Inner Mongolia, Ningxia, Qinghai, Sichuan, Tibet and Xinjiang.

As of 2012, about 50 million people lived in areas where the disease is prevalent.

The government aims to control the disease by 2020. Tibet started fighting the disease in 2007. From 2011 to 2015, more than 700 people in the region received surgery, state-run Xinhua news agency reported. PTI KJV UZM

This post originally appeared on the IndiaToday website on 23rd August 2016. available at: http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/china-to-survey-tibet-for-fighting-deadly-parasite/1/746988.html

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MOOC: One Health: Connecting Humans, Animals and the Environment

MOOC: One Health: Connecting Humans, Animals and the Environment

MOOC: One Health: Connecting Humans, Animals and the Environment

OneHealth course

Please, find below a link to register for a free online course on the concept of One Health starting this November. The educators for the course are:

  • Jakob Zinsstag: Professor of Epidemiology at the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute and the University of Basel, Switzerland.
  • Esther Schelling: a vet by training and now the leader of the Mobile Populations and Health research group of the Human and Animal Health Studies unit at Swiss TPH. Mainly working in Africa, Asia and Switzerland.
  • Bassirou Bonfoh: Veterinary-Epidemiologist, working in the area of capacity building in One Health by addressing risk analysis and zoonoses control and elimination pathways in Africa.
Click here to register for the course
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