Tablet

Vietnam has routinely monitored HIV sero-prevalence among key populations through its HIV sentinel surveillance system (HSS). In 2010, this system was updated to include a behavioral component (HSS+) among people who inject drugs, female sex workers, and men who have sex with men. HSS+ has historically used a paper-based questionnaire for data collection. At the end of the survey, provincial data were manually entered into computers using EpiData Entry forms (http://www.epidata.dk/) and submitted to the Vietnam Authority of HIV/AIDS Control (VAAC). As a result, feedback to provinces on data issues was not provided until after fieldwork completion. One recent survey used tablets for data collection and found that it saved time, required fewer staff, and reduced costs compared to paper-based data collection. In 2017, Vietnam introduced tablet for behavioral data collection in HSS+ to improve data quality, resource saving, and to provide more timely access to data.

Objective:

To describe the implementation process, successes, challenges, and lessons learned of the application of tablet for data collection and data system in HIV sentinel surveillance in Vietnam.

Infectious disease surveillance for generating early warnings to enable a prompt response during mass gatherings has long been a challenge in India as well as in other parts of the world. Ujjain, Madhya Pradesh in Central India hosted one of the largest religious festival in the world called ‘Simhasth kumbh mela’ on the banks of River Kshipra, where more than 50 million attendees came for holy dip during April 22 to May 21, 2016. The attendees included pilgrims (residents and visitors), observers, officials and volunteers. We developed an android application with automated summary reports and an interactive dashboard for syndromic surveillance during the gathering.

Objective:

To develop, test and study tablet-based participatory syndromic surveillance system for common infectious disease conditions at community level in Simhashta religious mass gathering in Ujjain, India, 2016.