A 21st century approach to tackling dengue: Crowdsourced surveillance, predictive mapping and tailored communication.
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Date
2016-01-06
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Abstract
This paper describes a social media system to prevent dengue in Sri Lanka and potentially in the rest of the South and Southeast Asia regions The system integrates three concepts of public health prevention that have thus far been implemented only in silos First the predictive surveillance component uses a computer simulation to forewarn health authorities and the general public about impending disease outbreaks The civic engagement component allows the general public to use social media tools to interact and engage with health authorities by aiding them in surveillance efforts by reporting symptoms mosquito bites and breeding sites using smartphone technologies The health communication component utilizes citizen data gathered from the first two components to disseminate customized health awareness messages to enhance knowledge and increase preventive behaviors among citizens The system known as Mo Buzz will be made available on a host of digital platforms like simple mobile phones smart phones and a website We present challenges and lessons learnt including content validation stakeholder collaborations and applied trans disciplinary research
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Keywords
Adult, At risk for a particular disease or infection, Client, Manager, Delayed reporting of events, Quality/unreliability of data, Communication roadblocks, Access to information or data, Demand for services, Effective resource allocation, Planning and coordination, Pilot, Functionality, Usability, Effectiveness, Vector-Borne, Preventive, Health education or promotion, Hotlines and information services, Mass messaging campaigns, Disease prevention, Surveillance, Internet, Text, Image, GPS, Installed application