Tanzania has a disease surveillance infrastructure with national, regional and district offices for human and animal disease surveillance. Electricity shortages and limited communications infrastructure create a challenge for a rapid information exchange of the disease surveillance information. Cell phones revolution provided 75.8% mobile network coverage of the population and 45% of land area in 2005-2013. At the moment 98% of the district centers are covered with the network. The network growth is expected at a pace of 17-25% annually throughout 2015. The following technologies become available for nation-wide use in surveillance: 1) online voice, 2) SMS, 3) mobile web, and 4) Android applications on cell phones. These technologies have different advantages for disease surveillance that are evaluated for proper application.
Objective
In the past few years Tanzania has experienced a cell phone technology revolution presenting new opportunities for disease surveillance improvements. This dynamic environment, challenged with resource constraints and the need for a one-health joint effort for disease surveillance and control, calls for evaluation of technologies for better planning and implementation of future information technology projects in disease surveillance.