Kadoma – During an active cholera outbreak, compiling and reporting high quality data on suspected cases – such as age, sex, location, symptoms onset, laboratory test results and treatment response - is crucial. This provides decision-makers with timely and accurate information to guide the cholera response.

To enhance reporting systems and cholera surveillance in Zimbabwe, the World Health Organization supported the Ministry of Health and Child Care (MoHCC) to conduct a data harmonization workshop in Kadoma. The workshop aimed to address data quality gaps and update the missing cholera data across all provinces, including essential information like the effective utilization of partner-donated resources such as cholera testing kits.

The WHO Data Harmonization guidelines, which delineate surveillance data monitoring processes, were instrumental technical resources utilized by WHO to steer the data harmonization exercise. Previously, data reported on cholera cases had missing information on laboratory tests conducted by healthcare workers across the country. This shortfall undermined accountability and failed to accurately reflect the dedicated efforts of healthcare staff.

"We were putting in the hard work, but the data wasn't reflecting that," says Janet Jonga, Manager for Epidemiology and Disease Control at MOHCC. “Now, we can showcase the impact of our efforts and this improved data will be instrumental in securing the resources needed to respond to outbreaks swiftly and save lives.”

Mr Jonathan Yadini, District Health Information Officer for Hwange District commended the exercise and noted, “Previously, data from Laboratory and Surveillance was being reported separately in parallel data flow streams, leading to discrepancies in the data. This harmonization exercise has promoted collaboration to ensure that cholera data is now accurately and comprehensively tracked through the health information database, enhancing epidemic monitoring.”

The harmonization exercise was made possible with WHO support and enhanced data collection, with the line list completion rates soared from 70% to 95%, providing a much clearer picture of cholera transmission across the country. Updating of laboratory data offered a comprehensive view of utilized resources, promoting better allocation. The newly introduced district-level epidemiological curves with the up-to-date data helped to pinpoint areas experiencing challenges and enabled a more targeted community response. Funding for this activity came from the UN Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF), and the Health Resilience Fund, (HRF supported by EU, GAVI, UK and Ireland).

WHO’s efforts have been focused but not limited to providing enabling factors to ensure early detection through equipping surveillance officers with skills for and enhanced testing of suspected cholera cases through provision of testing kits. WHO is also providing funding  to ensure that data collected is transmitted daily and reflected in the situational reports of the MoHCC to promote timely information dissemination and action. Supportive supervision visits are being undertaken periodically providing on the job mentorship. The country now has a unified database of cases and deaths by district for the first time, enabling quick identification of areas of interventions. This has promoted data driven decisions and interventions.

“Following this support, the MOHCC SITREP now features district level analyses thereby highlighting the situation in hotspot districts for attention,” said Mr Trevor Muchabaiwa, Data Manager at WHO Zimbabwe.