The Ethiopian Public Health Institute with support from World Health Organization (WHO) conducted a national training of trainers on the electronic surveillance (eSURV) Companion App from November 18-22, 2024 in Adama, Oromia region, enhancing the capacity of 40 Health Workers (HWs) for the deployment of the Companion App. As part of strengthening the surveillance system, eSurveillance helps to facilitate public health surveillance functions of prevention, prediction, detection and response for any acute public health event. 

The objective of the eSurveillance training is to review the structure of the eSURV/ISS form and define the performance indicators for districts and provinces; for the validation of the health facilities’ master list and the SOP to maintain the surveillance sites, and finally for the deployment of the updated form of the eSURV form. 

“WHO is committed to continue supporting the government in strengthening the surveillance and the eSurveillance platform is one of the ways. The eSurveillance system ensures a timely collection and translation of data for prompt decision making and immediate response.” says Dr. Owen Kaluwa, WHO Representative in Ethiopia.

Opening the training, Dr Melkamu Abte, Deputy Director General for Public Health Emergency Management (PHEM) of the Ethiopian Public Health Institute (EPHI), underscored the importance of such digital technology on health intervention to improve the access, quality and outcomes of the report. Dr Melkamu further encouraged participants to apply the eSURV to polio and other vaccine preventable disease surveillance in the country. He appreciated WHO Ethiopia and WHO AFRO for financing the training and for the technical support in the deployment of these innovative solutions.

Mr. Daniel Yohannes, a PHEM Officer from Addis Ababa City Administration also revealed that the App will ease the work of the surveillance officers and help to address gaps in the original ODK (Open Data Kit) such as identifying active surveillance site locations on the map to conduct the follow up visit. 

About 115 participants have been trained from national and regional level. At national level, a total of 33 participants, including Surveillance Officers from the national Ethiopian Public Health Institute (EPHI), regional Public Health Emergency Management (PHEM) Officers, and staff from WHO regional and central office and CDC AFNET attended the ToT training. The cascaded training is ongoing and so far, a total of 82 health professionals (PHEM Officers) from Addis Ababa city administration completed the training to ensure the smooth deployment of the tool across all districts for improved surveillance and supervision. 

The training focused on practical sessions along with the presentation, discussion, and group exercise and the field exercises helped to amend the feedback for the improvement of the preparation. As an outcome of the training, the eSURV questionnaire was reviewed and validated, the eSURV Key performance indicators developed, and active surveillance sites and the SOP validated.

WHO is supporting the Ministry of health to strengthen surveillance across the regions by providing technical and financial support to ensure a reliable supply of information to the national level and as well to fulfill the International Health Regulations (IHR) requirements. WHO is further supporting the government financially to support the sample reimbursement for polio and measles to the national polio and measles laboratory for assisting of timely laboratory confirmation, and for conducting regular surveillance performance review meeting. Additional technical support provided by WHO to strengthen the surveillance includes provision of technical guidance during preparation for outbreak response, enhancing detection of cases through active case search or integrates supportive supervision (ACS/ISS) and sensitization of health care workers in all regions. 

Ethiopia has planned to officially launch the eSURV Companion App in the future and the App is expected to significantly enhance surveillance capabilities, streamline data verification processes, and contribute to the overarching goal of disease monitoring and prevention. WHO will continue to support the process in this companion App deployment.