Malaria Day Zero Alert System

The Malaria Day Zero Alert System had the first pilot test in Cambodia on August 1.  We are trying to use this new system instead of relying only on the paper based report because we know it has the potential to make reporting more accurate, faster and easier than the current paper based reporting system.

In the past, the Village Malaria Workers (VMW) submitted their monthly malaria reports to the health center.  From there, the health center submitted their reports to the Operational District (OD).  And from there, the OD submitted their reports to the Provincial Health Department (PHD). And finally, once all the reports are collected, the PHD submitted them all to the national level.  This whole process can take up to 3 months!

That is where our Malaria Say Zero Alert system comes into play.

For our pilot, each of the Village Malaria Workers and Health Center Directors received a cell phone with a Mobitel (Cambodia mobile operator) cell phone number which was used exclusively for reporting into the Malaria Day Zero Alert System that we developed.  After the Village Malaria Worker gives the suspected malaria patient their malaria test and see the results, they will then send the results through an SMS using that cell phone.

By sending the results through SMS to the Malaria Day Zero Alert System, it centralizes all of the information from the various health centers.  Depending on the thresholds that were set up inside the system, the reports are automatically sent through SMS to the Operational District (OD) lead or Provincial Health Department (PHD) head in order to alert them of the situation on the ground.  This allows the OD and/or PHD to see disease instances on the map immediately, in real time, so that they can manage the situation and send for help.

Do you think the Malaria Day Zero Alert System is useful? Do you think this system could be useful if we deployed it in your country?