bioRxiv preprint doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/363713; this version posted July 6, 2018.

The copyright holder for this preprint (which was not

certified by peer review) is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available
under aCC-BY 4.0 International license.

Title: Integrated Disease Surveillance and Response (IDSR) in Malawi: Implementation Gaps and

Challenges for Timely Alert

Submit journal: PLoS ONE

Authors:

Tsung-Shu Joseph Wu1,2,3,4 *, ( email: wcsg@lukeinternational.no, tswu@mail.uio.no,

wcsg1004@gmail.com )

Matthew Kagoli5,6, ( email: mkagoli@gmail.com )

Jens Johan Kaasbøll1, ( email: jensj@ifi.uio.no )

Gunnar Aksel Bjune7 ( email: g.a.bjune@medisin.uio.no )

1. Department of Informatics, University of Oslo, Norway

2. Research Department, Luke International, Malawi

3. Overseas Mission Department, Pingtung Christian Hospital, Taiwan

4. Department of Public Health, National Taiwan University, Taiwan

5. Department of Epidemiology, Ministry of Health, Malawi

6. Public Health Institute, of Malawi, Malawi

7.Institute of Health and Society, University of Oslo, Norway

* Corresponding Author: Tsung-Shu Joseph Wu,

Email address: wcsg@lukeinternational.no, tswu@mail.uio.no

bioRxiv preprint doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/363713; this version posted July 6, 2018. The copyright holder for this preprint (which was not
certified by peer review) is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available
under aCC-BY 4.0 International license.

Abstract

Objective: The emerging and recent 2014 Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) outbreaks rang the bell to call

upon efforts from globe to assist resource-constrained countries to strengthen public health

surveillance system for early response. Malawi adopted the Integrated Disease Surveillance and

Response (IDSR) strategy to develop its national surveillance system since 2002 and revised its

guideline to fulfill the International Health Regulation (IHR) requirements in 2014. This study

aimed to understand the state of IDSR implementation and differences between guideline and

practice for future disease surveillance system strengthening.

Methods: This was a mixed-method observational study. Quantitative data were to analyze

completeness and timeliness of surveillance system performance from national District Health

Information System 2 (DHIS2). Qualitative data were collected through interviews with 29 frontline

health service providers from the selected district and key informants of the IDSR system

implementation and administration at district and national levels.

Findings: The current IDSR system showed relatively good completeness (76.4%) but poor

timeliness (41.5%) of total expected monthly reports nationwide and zero weekly reports. The

challenges of IDSR implementation revealed through qualitative data included lack of supervision,

inadequate resources for training and difficulty to implement weekly report due to overwhelming

paperwork at frontline health services.

Conclusions: The differences between IDSR technical guideline and actual practice were huge. The

developing information technology infrastructure in Malawi and emerging mobile health (mHealth)

technology can be opportunities for the country to overcome these challenges and improve

surveillance system to have better timeliness for the outbreaks and unusual events detection.
bioRxiv preprint doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/363713; this version posted July 6, 2018. The copyright holder for this preprint (which was not
certified by peer review) is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available
under aCC-BY 4.0 International license.

Introduction

After the largest Ebola Viral Disease (EVD) outbreak happened in Western Africa, governments,

health authorities in Africa and the world learnt a valuable lesson from the challenges of diseases

surveillance systems implementations in countries with limited public health infrastructure [1, 2].

The outbreak emerged in 2013, ended in June 2016 and affected 10 countries worldwide with

28,616 confirmed or probable cases, and 11,310 deaths [3-6]. The feebleness of the public health

infrastructure and capabilities, to capture early warning signal of outbreak and provide good

timeliness for response, was further exposed during this epidemic and the need for strengthening the

surveillance system in these countries and transform it from passive to active surveillance was

articulated for actions [2, 7]. Yet the new EVD outbreak emerged in the Democratic Republic of the

Congo in April 2018 [8].

Early case detection is one of the important approaches to managing future outbreaks [9]. In Africa,

although Integrated Diseases Surveillance and Response (IDSR) strategy was adopted as the

regional development approach for member states and technical partners since 1998, still,

challenges of implementing IDSR have highlighted already before the tragic EVD outbreak event in

2014 [10-12]. Following the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) outbreak in 2003, the

International Health Regulation (IHR) was revised by the World Health Organization (WHO) in

2005 and fully adopted by all countries around the world [13]. The IHR-2005 enhancement proved

to be helpful in dealing with the 2009 H1N1influenza pandemic and IDSR serves the platform for

its implementation in Africa [14, 15]. However, shortcomings of the global health system’s

capability, lack of virological surveillance in Africa and technologies for vaccine production and

implementation and the basic public health system infrastructure were revealed during the same

pandemic [16].
bioRxiv preprint doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/363713; this version posted July 6, 2018. The copyright holder for this preprint (which was not
certified by peer review) is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available
under aCC-BY 4.0 International license.

Malawi adopted the IDSR in 2002 and the third edition technical guideline was published in May

2014 with incremental reportable diseases and health conditions to fulfill the IHR-2005 and public

health needs [17]. The epidemiology department (ED) of the Ministry of Health (MOH) is the main

custodian of the IDSR system while the Center for Central Monitoring and Evaluation Division

(CMED) in the Department of Planning and Policy Development in the MOH is responsible for

coordinating the routine Health Management Information System (HMIS) and its subsystems,

including IDSR [18]. The IDSR system reporting and information flow follows the health system

organization structure from the community to the national level (Fig 1. The IDSR system

information flow according to the organization architecture in Malawi.).

At the community level, the Health Surveillance Assistants (HSAs) are the frontline health care

workers (HCWs) responsible for case identification and report. They work under the supervision of

attached health facilities to identify case and further refer to the nearest health facility [19]. Most of

the health facilities are public, government-owned or non-governmental, non-profit organization

under government regulatory in Malawi. The HCWs at each facility, irrespective of ownership

(public or private) are responsible for case identification and reporting (weekly and monthly). Each

facility has a person responsible for tallying reportable cases using various health information tools,

including electronic medical records (EMR) system. In the current guideline, 19 diseases and

conditions are required immediately reporting (Table 1).

bioRxiv preprint doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/363713; this version posted July 6, 2018. The copyright holder for this preprint (which was not
certified by peer review) is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available
under aCC-BY 4.0 International license.

Table 1: Diseases, conditions or events requiring immediate reporting of Malawi IDSR system
[17]
 Acute Flaccid Paralysis (AFP)  Meningococcal meningitis
 Acute hemorrhagic fever syndrome  Neonatal tetanus
(Ebola, Marburg, Lassa Fever, Rift  Plague
Valley Fever (RVF), Crimean-Congo)  Rabies (confirmed cases)
 Adverse effects following immunization  Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome
(AEFI) (SARS)
 Anthrax  Smallpox
 Cholera  Typhoid fever
 Cluster of SARI  Yellow fever
 Diarrhoea with blood (Shigella  Any public health event of international
dysentery) concern (infectious, zoonotic, food
 Influenza due to new subtype borne, chemical, radio nuclear or due to
 Maternal death an unknown condition)
 Measles

Each District Health Office (DHO) has a District Health Management Team (DHMT) overseeing

health programmes. The District Environmental Health Officer (DEHO) of DHMT is responsible

for HSAs management and district IDSR focal person is collecting surveillance reports from

facilities for submission and notification. From district level above, Malawi has adopted District

Health Information System (DHIS) as the national system for HMIS reporting since 2002. The

system was upgraded to a web-based open-source information system, DHIS2, in 2012 [20]. MOH

is hosting DHIS2 and the IDSR reports are required to be entered by the focal person since late

2014. The IDSR core functions of each levels of the health system clearly articulated in the

guideline (Table 2).

Table 2. The Malawi IDSR core functions and activities at each health system level
Level of Health Core Functions
System Identify Report Analysis and Interpret Investigate and Confirm
Community  Use simple case definitions to  Report case critical information on  Involve local leaders in observing  Support event investigation
identify priority diseases, public priority diseases, public health describing and interpreting disease activities.
health events, conditions or other events, conditions, or hazards to patterns, public health events and
hazards in the community health facility and appropriate trends in the community.
authorities  Undertake verbal autopsies on
causes of deaths
Health Facility  Use standard case definitions to  Report case based information for  Prepare and periodically update  Take part in investigation of
detect confirm and record priority immediately notable diseases graphs tables, and charts to reported outbreaks or public health
diseases or conditions public health  Report summary data to next level describe time, person and place for events
events  Report laboratory results from reported diseases, conditions and  Collect, package, store and
 Collect and transport specimens for screening of sentinel populations public health events transport specimens for laboratory
laboratory confirmation  Report laboratory results to next  From the analysis, report confirmation
 Use local laboratory capacity to level immediately any disease or
confirm cases or to initiate condition that:
confirmation of cases if possible (1) exceeds an action
threshold
(2) occurs in locations where
it was previously absent
(3) presents unusual trends or
patterns
 Interpret results, initiate possible
Public Health actions with local
authorities
District, Zonal  Collect surveillance data from  Make sure health facilities know  Define denominations and ensure  Arrange and lead investigation of
reporting sites including designated and use standard case definitions their accuracy reported diseases or outbreaks and
points of entry on time and review for reporting priority diseases,  Aggregate data form health facility public health events
the quality conditions and public health events reports  Assist health facility in safe
 Ensure reliable supply of data  Make sure health facility staff  Analyze data by time, place and collection, packaging storage and
collection and reporting tools are know when and how to report person transport of laboratory specimen
available at reporting sites priority diseases, conditions and  Periodically update graphs, tables for confirmatory testing
 Collect and transport specimen for public health events and charts to describe reported  Receive and interpret laboratory
laboratory confirmation  Report data on time to the next diseases, public health events and results
 Use local laboratory capacity to level conditions  Describe if the reported outbreak
confirm cases if possible  Report laboratory results to next  Calculate rates and thresholds and public health events is
level  Compare current data with confirmed.
 Periodically conduct risk previous periods  Report the confirmed outbreak or
assessment for priority diseases,  Make conclusions about trends, public health events to the next
 public health events, condition or thresholds and analysis results level
hazards  Describe risk factors for priority  Distribute specimen collection Kits
diseases or conditions or public for special surveillance activities.
health events
NATIONAL  Define, update and ensure  Report the immediate notifiable  Set policies and procedures for  Ensure guidelines and standard
compliance with national policy diseases and public health events to analyzing and interpreting data operating procedures for outbreak
and guidelines the appropriate authorities on time investigations are available at all
 Analyze and interpret data from a sites
 Set policies and procedures for the  Report other priority disease and national perspective  Coordinate and collaborate with
national laboratory networks public health events on time international authorities as needed
including quality assurance  Regularly convene a meeting of the during investigations
systems  Include all relevant laboratories in technical coordinating committee  Alert and support laboratory
the reporting network to review the analyzed and participation
 Use national laboratory for interpreted data before wider  Provide logistic support l supplies,
confirmatory and specialized  Use IHR Decision Instrument dissemination equipment, reagents, specimen
testing if necessary (Annex2) to determine risks for transport media, health promotion
priority diseases public health  Carry out special analyse to budget
 Collect and transport specimens for events, conditions or hazards forecast magnitude and trends of
 Share information with regional
additional analysis at WHO priority disease and public health
and international networks about
Collaborating Centres as necessary  Inform WHO as indicated by IHR events.
confirmed outbreak
(2005)
 Use the decision instrument to
decide whether the outbreak is a
potential PHEIC
 Process specimen from
investigation and send timely
results as required to each level
 Request additional specimen as
needed
 Take part in epidemic response
team
bioRxiv preprint doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/363713; this version posted July 6, 2018. The copyright holder for this preprint (which was not
certified by peer review) is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available
under aCC-BY 4.0 International license.

Despite existing framework of IDSR system, few nationwide assessments of IDSR system have

been done in Africa and none in Malawi [12, 21-23]. This study aims to explore the differences

between the IDSR guideline and practice, specifically looking into the timeliness and completeness

aspects, which shall trigger responses.

Materials and Methods

Study design

This study mixed quantitative and qualitative methods to assess and understand the implementation

gaps of IDSR system from each level of the health system in Malawi and focused on two key

attributes, timeliness and completeness, of the surveillance system [24].

Source of data

We used the built-in function of the DHIS2 to extract IDSR monthly reporting rate summary data

from the central server of the Ministry of Health, period from October 2014 to September 2016 and

the data were extracted in June 2017.

Qualitative data of community to district level IDSR workers were collected from one convenience

selected district in the Northern Region of Malawi, which has the best performance of IDSR

reporting in 2013. The interviews and observations were conducted based on the interview guide

and conducted in English, Chewa or Tumbuka. The interviews were digitally recorded for

transcribing, translating and analysis. The researcher (TSJW) observed operation of the outpatient

clinic in hospitals to obtain contextual information about the service providing and IDSR report

generating process. Key informants from the district and the national level were interviewed to

obtain IDSR system implementation status and to identify the challenges and gaps.
bioRxiv preprint doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/363713; this version posted July 6, 2018. The copyright holder for this preprint (which was not
certified by peer review) is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available
under aCC-BY 4.0 International license.

Data analysis

Quantitative data were exported from the DHIS2 with the Excel data format and divided by the

studied district and one national category. The data were compiled to one dataset and analyzed

using tabulation and line charts to illustrate the time series patterns of the IDSR monthly report data

quality – completeness and timeliness1. According to the national policy, 80% completeness and

timeliness is the threshold of good performance.

Interview records were transcribed into text for translating and read by the researchers (TSJW) to

find the actual practices of IDSR system. The core functions of each level of health system actors

were compared with the expected functions according to the guideline.

Results

Quantitative data

We extracted 168 IDSR reporting rate summary (24 months). The completeness data, exclude the

outlier in February 2015, showed average completeness was 94.0% and 76.4% in the studied district

and nationwide respectively (Fig 2. The IDSR monthly reports completeness indicator from

October 2014 to September 2016 divided by national level and studied district). Only 4.2% of the

IDSR monthly reports from the whole country reached the good performance standard.

We observed very poor timeliness performance of the IDSR monthly report (Fig 3. The IDSR

monthly reports timeliness indicator from October 2014 to September 2016 divided by national

level and studied district). Good performance was not achieved during any of the 24 months.

1Completeness of reporting indicates whether facilities have reported on the IDSR monthly data they are supposed to
report on, while timeliness indicates whether these reports were delivered on time. According to the national policy,
each health facility has to compile the IDSR monthly report by 15th of the month and the districts received and entered
by 25th of the month.
bioRxiv preprint doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/363713; this version posted July 6, 2018. The copyright holder for this preprint (which was not
certified by peer review) is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available
under aCC-BY 4.0 International license.

Notably in February 2015, the timeliness of IDSR monthly reports all dropped to almost 0% due to

server breakdown and also affected the completeness of IDSR monthly report in the studied district.

Qualitative data

Community level health workers

At the community level, we interviewed 17 HSAs who run the village clinics to provide health

services to the villagers. However, according to all the informants, none of them was practicing

community-level case identification using IDSR guidelines. They relied on volunteers from the

Village Health Committee (VHC) to report unusual health events. One informant explained the

limited logistic support and large catchment area to serve constitute challenges to do active

surveillance works. The health volunteers from the VHC hence played critical roles for the

community level outbreak or incidence alerts.

“I have volunteers from each village, 2 of them (in each village). Those volunteers are my

ambassadors. They have the knowledge, if any outbreak, they tip me, then I rush (to the

village) .” HSA, #RU03

They initiated preliminary investigations when community rumors emerge and physically walked to

the higher-level health facilities to report.

“I can write a written report then submit it to office, or I can go in person explain the

situation to my boss.” HSA, #RU02

The main function that HSAs saw for themselves in serving IDSR was to assist their health facilities

to compile the IDSR monthly reports, perform community sensitization and education. Through

observations, some HSAs were equipped and capable to do simple data analysis (Fig 4. Population

statics tabulated by health surveillance assistant in one village clinic) and use them as instrument to
bioRxiv preprint doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/363713; this version posted July 6, 2018. The copyright holder for this preprint (which was not
certified by peer review) is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available
under aCC-BY 4.0 International license.

interact with the VHC for disease prevention and health promotion. However, the limited

supervision and resources affected their performance in this area of work.

“At first, we are going to each and every household…but this time it’s not often.” HSA,

Informant #RU03

Facility level health care workers

At the facility level, we interviewed 12 HCWs from two health facilities. The HCWs picked up

unusual health events through their daily services and did not wait until the monthly report to take

actions.

“When we see many patients are coming from that place and they are registering ARI (acute

respiratory infection). What does that mean? So we don’t even wait for the month to come

and work on the data. But we just see that I think for this… we come together and then we

discuss. If it’s an outbreak we see that we cannot control, then we inform the DHO.” HCW,

#MHRH01

“We usually report to the environmental officer and then they will send the HSAs and see

what’s going on there.” HCW, #RDH04

Despite of EMR system in place, the heavy workload made it difficult for HCWs to capture clinical

information on system for automate reporting. They simplified the work and transcribed individual

level data into the different paper registers for reporting.

“The computers are not fast as we expected them to be. Just to print somebody’s name, you

have to wait for a minute or more. So you say this is delaying me, let me just write… we are

having a lot of patients. A lot of them.” HCW, #RDH04

bioRxiv preprint doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/363713; this version posted July 6, 2018. The copyright holder for this preprint (which was not
certified by peer review) is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available
under aCC-BY 4.0 International license.

District level

The challenges to get timely reports through unstable information technology infrastructure were

obstacles for the IDSR focal person in the DHO to provide quality reports.

“…with IDSR, I have got challenges with the reporting system itself, from the health

facilities, sometimes reports come a bit late. We also have challenges of that we do not have

internet at the hospital. So we have to use the smart phones, the (internet) dongles to buy

units and we are not provided with any funding for internet services so we have got to go

into our pockets...” DHO, #RDHO02

Lack of comprehensive training was the challenge to enhance the electronic system to capture more

data for disease surveillance and decision-making.

“The challenge is those who are using the computers, it’s just a few number of people who

are oriented... that’s why it’s difficult to capture the data and many information.” DHO,

#RDHO02

Financial constrains were key concerns. This created gaps for IDSR system to be implemented

using the updated technical guideline at the community and facility levels.

“The new IDSR guidelines are in, but due to lack of funds they have not yet called us for

orientation on the new guidelines. We are still using the old guidelines, which is having

fewer information. … We are just waiting (fund) so that we can also share the information

with our fellow health workers.” DHO, #RDHO02

bioRxiv preprint doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/363713; this version posted July 6, 2018. The copyright holder for this preprint (which was not
certified by peer review) is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available
under aCC-BY 4.0 International license.

National level

We noted during the field study at community, facility and district level that no one mentioned the

IDSR weekly reports, nor actually implementation of the new guideline. The constrained resources

heavily affect the performance of the IDSR system in the country.

“At the beginning we are doing very well. WHO came and helped us to setup the system

from 2002, we do supervision, training and so on, up until 2007 there is no fund.

Government said we cannot take it, it’s too costly.” ED, #MOH02

The IDSR weekly reporting system paralyzed due to the difficulties for HCWs to cope with the

volume of paper-generated reports and lack of internet connectivity. This seemed the main obstacle

from national authorities perspective who eagers to enable the system for rapid responses.

“Of course we told them to do weekly report, but there is no internet. For them to write

report and send… it is just too difficult for them to handle these papers.” ED, #MOH02

The data quality of IDSR monthly report submitted through HMIS was the concern for ED to use.

For instance, there were 31 Viral Hemorrhagic Fever cases recorded in DHIS2 in 2015, but none

confirmed by the department.

“If you look at the data, you will be surprised like: how can we have Ebola cases and we

don’t know. The data quality is just so poor and we cannot use it.” ED, #MOH01

The department expected to use technology to improve timeliness and capability to early response.

“If it is an immediately notifiable case, we want to know immediately. We don’t even want to

wait them to report to us, we want to know now. Even it is a rumor or what, we need to

know so we can check if it is true. That’s why we want to use this SMS or the eIDSR

(electronic IDSR) so we can know there is something happening there.” ED, #MOH02
bioRxiv preprint doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/363713; this version posted July 6, 2018. The copyright holder for this preprint (which was not
certified by peer review) is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available
under aCC-BY 4.0 International license.

There is a fundamental difference between the needs of the HMIS and the IDSR systems, where one

is looking only for confirmed cases while IDSR is looking for alerts to take fast actions.

“We want to get confirmed cases. We need to know exactly how many are they so we can do

proper planning. That is why we want the data to be complete and accurate.” CMED

#MOH03

“We need to know if there is something happen in the community. Wait for a month,

sometimes three months to get report, it is just too slow. We need to take actions

immediately so we are looking for any signal that can trigger us to take actions.” ED,

#MOH01

Discussion

We assessed the differences between IDSR technical guideline and actual practice in the health

system in Malawi for the first time. According to the quantitative data, we observed relatively good

completeness of IDSR monthly reports compared to timeliness. Timeliness is a general problem to

countries implementing IDSR system across Africa, and this makes the public health authorities

unable to take quick action and respond to the suspected health events [12, 25]. Facility level IDSR

reports may not be sufficiently timely to pick up the outbreaks from community. The strengthened

community level surveillance and verbal autopsy to detect unusual deaths can be a good approach

to detect lower level health events and provide timely response [26]. In Malawi, a pilot study

conducted in Lilongwe District in Central Region showed that mobile technologies had good

opportunities to improve timeliness of HMIS reports [27]. However, concerning the different

purposes of HMIS and IDSR system, a more integrated electronic IDSR system is essential for the

health authorities to correspond the diverse demands.

bioRxiv preprint doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/363713; this version posted July 6, 2018. The copyright holder for this preprint (which was not
certified by peer review) is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available
under aCC-BY 4.0 International license.

African health ministries are quickly adopting mHealth solutions to improve disease surveillance

and health programmes. Tanzania piloted an IDSR reporting system using SMS function and

regular phones for report in 2011 [28] and further expanded it to be the national strategy for

diseases surveillance using Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) technology linked

with DHIS2 for the immediate reporting for IDSR [29-31]. Zambia tried to use DHIS2 mobile to

enhance its malaria surveillance in Lusaka district and to improve case management and reporting

[32]. Other mobile technologies including smartphone applications, patient monitoring devices,

Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs), as well as laptops and tablets PCs connected with network

service were piloted and implemented in various African countries [33]. Countries and development

partners are eager to apply the mobile technology to capture real-time field data for surveillance and

case management at the community level health care system [30, 34-37]. However, notable issues

were documented including technical, financial, infrastructural challenges, data security and

medical supports during the design and implementation process of mHealth surveillance in sub-

Saharan Africa countries [33]. Considering the complexity of public health works and needs of

integration services at the community level [38], the utilization of mobile technologies requires

more rigorous studies to evaluate such innovations for programme implementation to become

sustainable and scalable [39].

Apart from mHealth solutions, researchers recommended to use syndromic surveillance approach

combined with systematic virological testing as early as possible to maintain high quality situational

awareness [40]. Several countries have established electronic data based syndromic surveillance

systems to capture early warning signals of different diseases and health status especially related to

respiratory infections [41-44]. However, electronic syndromic surveillance systems remain a novel

technology for most of developing countries to adopt and implement [45]. Several EMR systems

had been developed in Malawi and MOH decided to move towards a national standardized EMR

system to support all levels of HMIS [46-48]. This provides a unique opportunity to utilize existing

information technology and infrastructures to strengthen the IDSR system with nationwide
bioRxiv preprint doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/363713; this version posted July 6, 2018. The copyright holder for this preprint (which was not
certified by peer review) is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available
under aCC-BY 4.0 International license.

syndromic surveillance. Yet it is critical to improve the user experiences of EMR users to improve

the uptake and usage of the system. Similar countries can consider system synergies and existing

infrastructure for IDSR enhancement.

We only focused on completeness and timeliness, and the accuracy attribute of the IDSR system

performance was out of the scope of this study. Further clinical and laboratory data are needed for

proper assessment. We only sampled one district to conduct qualitative assessment, however, we

are confident that it is relevant for the Malawian context by the fact that the health care system is

rather homogeneous in Malawi and the district we selected had a relatively good IDSR performance

to generalize the implementation challenges.

Conclusions

Lack of timeliness in reporting makes the IDSR system inoperative. Differences between IDSR

technical guideline and actual practice existed in the current Malawian context. Shortcomings were

due to financial constraints and poor basic infrastructure. However, the improving information

technology infrastructure in Malawi, single country platform EMR system and emerging mHealth

technologies can be opportunities for the country to overcome the challenges and improve the

surveillance system.

.
bioRxiv preprint doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/363713; this version posted July 6, 2018. The copyright holder for this preprint (which was not
certified by peer review) is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available
under aCC-BY 4.0 International license.

Acknowledgements

Omega Banda the research assistant who assisted the filed study data collection, transcribing and

translation of the materials.

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List of abbreviations

AFRO: World Health Organization Regional Office for Africa, ARI: acute respiratory infections,

CDC: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, CHAM: Christian Health Association of Malawi,

CMED: central monitoring and evaluation division, DEHO: district environmental health officer,

DHIS: district health information system, DHIS2: district health information system 2, DHMT:

district health management team, DHO: district health office, EMR: electronic medical records,

EVD: Ebola virus disease, HCWs: health care workers, HMIS: health management information

system, HSAs: health surveillance assistants, IDSR: integrated disease surveillance and response,

IHR: international health regulation, mHealth: mobile health, MOH: Ministry of Health, PDAs:

Personal Digital Assistants, SARS: severe acute respiratory syndrome, USSD: unstructured

supplementary service data, VHC: village health committee, WHO: World Health Organization.

Declarations

Ethics approval and consent to participate

The study protocol was reviewed and approved by the National Health Sciences Research

Committee (NHSRC) of Malawi with approval number 16/4/1563. The study was granted

permission by the health authorities from district health office and the Ministry of Health. All

interviews were conducted with the written consent from the interviewees.

Consent for publication

Not applicable, no individual patient data is included in this study.

Availability of data and materials

The datasets generated and analyzed during the current study are not publicly available due the

DHIS-2 is Malawi government owned internal dataset and personal interviews but are available

from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

bioRxiv preprint doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/363713; this version posted July 6, 2018. The copyright holder for this preprint (which was not
certified by peer review) is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available
under aCC-BY 4.0 International license.

Competing interests

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Funding

This study was supported by the Pingtung Christian Hospital, Taiwan through Luke International,

Norway with grant number: PS-IR-104001 and PS-IR-105001.

Authors' contributions

TSJW analyzed and interpreted the data. MK contributed IDSR evaluation direction and policy

interests from the government prospective. JJK and GAB contributed to the structure and argument

directions of the study and analysis. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Tables Legends

Table 1: Diseases, conditions or events requiring immediate reporting of Malawi IDSR system

Table 2. The Malawi IDSR core functions and activities at each health system level

Figures Legends

Figure 1. The IDSR system information flow according to the organization architecture in Malawi.

Figure 2. The IDSR monthly reports completeness indicator from October 2014 to September 2016

divided by national level and studied district.

Figure 3. The IDSR monthly reports timeliness indicator from October 2014 to September 2016

divided by national level and studied district.

Figure 4. Population statics tabulated by health surveillance assistant in one village clinic