Real time surveillance of dengue fever – a preliminary study

Dengue is the commonest infectious disease in Sri Lanka. It is a notifiable disease since 1996. There were 32063 dengue fever patients reported from Sri Lanka in 2013 and most of them were from urban and semi urban areas [1]. Dengue surveillance programme is one of the most important components of dengue control and prevention. Sri Lanka has a well-established and functioning notification system for communicable diseases surveillance. This is a paper based system and the notification forms which are filled by the first contact medical officer are sent to the range Public Health Inspector (PHI) for preventive actions through a process involving Infectious Controlling Nursing Officers (ICNO), head of the institutions and Medical Officer of Health (MOH). Since this involves the usual postal system and several individuals, this process might take even up to one to two weeks to reach PHI which may be too late for early intervention [2]. This maybe further delayed when patients acquire dengue while away from home and are subsequently admitted to a hospitals close to their home.