Overview of Community-Based Surveillance

Routine surveillance (RS) is the regular collection of health-related data to inform public health practice. RS relies on the health system to get the data. Community-based surveillance (CBS) is the detection and reporting of significanct public health events in a community by community members. CBS catches events missed by RS.

It is best for tracking unusual patterns to help monitor health emergencies and can prevent them from escalating. There are 3 scenarios where CBS is most useful:

1. A public health emergency, such as a disease outbreak;
2. no RTS or it is ineffective;
3. to monitor hard-to-reach populations.

It is necessary to have community participation and engagement as well as a reliable response network to ensure effective community-based surveillance.

As a community health worker you can support community-based surveillance for COVID-19 by collectinginformation. Listen 👂to the community, monitor their behaviour and look out for signals of possible outbreaks. Your role in CBS may involve data collection, confirming if information already collected is correct (verification) ✓ or to help share information (dissemination)📣.

Once data is collected, it is uploaded to a database. Health officials can then use the data to see early warning signs 🚩 for public health emergencies and plan the best possible response✍️.

Strong community-based surveillance adds to the overall surveillance system, uses simple tools to collect data and is carried out by trained & trusted people. To make CBS for COVID-19 effective, follow these tips:

1. Use simple language to identify cases or hazards in the community;
2. work with community leaders and discuss events & trends they notice 🔍 in the community;
3. support outbreak investigations and contact tracing;
4. provide updates to the community on outbreaks;
5. remember to give the community updates on outbreak investigations and send regular reports 🗒 to your supervisor or local health facility;
6. check🔍 that public health programs being implemented are on track and are leading to fewer COVID 19 cases and deaths.

In the pandemic, one important role of CBS is to track COVID-19 events (signal detection). Here is a list of possible events to track as a COVID-19 risk:

1. Track any COVID-19 related deaths;
2. track sales and stock of thermometers 🌡or fever-reducing drugs 💊at local pharmacies;
3. check social media for large social gatherings;
4. track the spread of misinformation over WhatsApp and on other social media📱;
5. collect data on the number of people in quarantine and isolating in your community;
6. observe mask 😷 wearing in your community;
7. monitor the number of hand washing stations🚰 in your community that need to be refilled.