Conference abstract
Evaluation of cholera surveillance system in Ga South Municipality, Greater Accra Region, Ghana, 2016
Pan African Medical Journal - Conference Proceedings. 2017:3(29).17
Oct 2017.
doi: 10.11604/pamj-cp.2017.3.29.119
Archived on: 17 Oct 2017
Contact the corresponding author
Keywords: Cholera, surveillance system, integrated disease surveillance and response
Oral presentation
Evaluation of cholera surveillance system in Ga South Municipality, Greater Accra Region, Ghana, 2016
Akua Boadiwaa Amoh-Yeboah1,&, Bright Davies-Teye2, Edwin Afari1, Kofi Mensah Nyarko1, Donne Kofi Ameme1, Samuel Oko Sackey1
1Ghana Field Epidemiology and Laboratory Training Program, Accra, Ghana, 2Ghana Health Service, Ghana
&Corresponding author
Akua Boadiwaa Amoh-Yeboah, Ghana Field Epidemiology and Laboratory Training Programme, Ghana
Introduction: cholera is an acute illness with profuse watery diarrhea with high case fatality rate is left untreated. It is caused by Vibrio cholera serogroups O1 or O139. The disease is transmitted fecal-orally through ingesting contaminated food or water. In 2014, 16,527 cases including 128 deaths (CFR 0.8%) were reported from 8 out of 10 regions in Ghana. Greater Accra region recorded 73% of the cases (12,120 cases with 97 deaths (CFR 0.7%). We evaluated the cholera surveillance system to describe operation of the system, and assess its attributes to determine whether the system is meeting the objectives.
Methods: this was a cross-sectional study. We used the CDC Updated Guidelines for Evaluating Public Health Surveillance System. We interviewed key stakeholders using a structured questionnaire to collect information about the system and its attributes. We reviewed cholera data from 2011-2015 from the Health Information System at district and regional levels. The system attributes were assessed and scored for description and comparison on a Likert scale from 1 to 4. Data was analyzed using Epi-info and Microsoft Excel.
Results: the cholera surveillance system was included in the Integrated Disease Surveillance and Response with a clear case definition and laboratory support at all levels. The system was simple and flexible as it is able to adapt to changes. It was also acceptable by all and was stable, and highly sensitive due to the Enhanced diarrheal surveillance established. Timeliness was 100% due to deadlines set. Data quality was poor as data validation was not done frequently. Predictive value positive (PVP) was low, less than 40% and stool samples were not collected for confirmation.
Conclusion: the cholera surveillance system met most of its stated objectives. The surveillance system is simple, flexible and sensitive and the data were used for decisions making and planning. However, data quality and confirmation of true cases for calculating PVP needs improvement. We recommended training on data quality and also data validation be done at all levels to improve data quality.
