In response to major epidemic and pandemic outbreaks, WHO-AFRO and its Member States have adopted the Integrated Disease Surveillance and Response (IDSR) strategy to address International Health Regulations (2005) as well as individual Member Stateâs national disease control objectives. Significant progress has been made scaling-up capacity for disease surveillance and response using the IDSR guidelines, including implementation of IHR, the WHO African Region has experienced many challenges in designing, developing and implementing electronic surveillance systems. Over the past decade or more, many local and international stakeholders have independently pursued solutions for electronic surveillance and reporting in African countries. This has resulted in multiple systems of varying effectiveness and minimum interoperability due, in part, to limited agreement among stakeholders on data collecting and reporting standards. This complicated situation prevents most African countries from reaping the full benefits of having electronic systems to help detect, report, and respond to endemic, emerging and priority disease threats.
Objective
We report on the development of the African Surveillance Informatics Governing Board (ASIGB) as a conceptual strategy for strengthening eSurveillance in the African Region.