The story of CBS
Innovation often starts with a crisis.
Our crisis was the Sierra Leone cholera outbreak in 2012. The disease causes acute diarrhea and vomiting, leading to a rapid loss of fluids. Without treatment, the disease can be fatal.
In Sierra Leone, cholera was spreading in rural areas which were hard to reach. The lack of health clinics meant that people were left untreated, leading to a rapid spread of the highly infectious disease.
The Red Cross responded by setting up first aid posts to treat the 22 000+ infected. Each of these first aid posts held key information which would allow us to stop the outbreak. They knew everything about the communities they were in. But, we couldn’t access this information in an efficient manner. Supervisors where driving around on motorbikes, collecting information and entering it into a spreadsheet — a process which took too long to be able to respond appropriately to what was going on in real-time.
The cholera outbreak in Sierra Leone demonstrated the need for a better information system.
This is the crisis which sparked the idea for our innovation. By finding a simple, low cost and accessible way to get real-time data from communities who are off the grid, without healthcare, electricity or facebook, we could save more lives, and potentially stop outbreaks before they even happen.
With the excellent help of tech volunteers, we started programming a community based surveillance system where Red Cross volunteers based in local communities could report on health risks via SMS. The reports are logged in a system, which allows for an overview and analysis of the health situation. By reviewing the data in real time, we are able to see peaks in diseases cases and provide responses which treat people before more are infected.
Last year, a cholera outbreak affected 80 000 people in Somalia. An early version of the community based surveillance tool enabled daily and real time reporting from both clinics and first aid posts during the outbreak. This ensured a targeted response which curbed the epidemic.
Today, community based surveillance is live in Somalia
Through the MVP of the open source software, Somali Red Crescent volunteers are reporting symptoms of cholera from their communities via SMS. The data is monitored and reviewed for unusual spikes in case loads or clusters of cases that may indicate the beginning of a new outbreak. In collaboration with the health authorities we can then respond early, stopping a potential epidemic before it happens.
