Baylor Uganda works in collaboration with the Ministry of Health and other partners to strengthen surveillance systems that are able to detect events of public health significance early to facilitate a timely response. We support surveillance by providing both financial and technical resources for the development and review of national guidelines, support both national and subnational training in surveillance, and second technical staff to both the National Emergency Operation Centre (EOC) and the Department of Integrated Epidemiology, Surveillance and Public Health Emergencies (IES&PHEs) of Ministry of Health. This support is aligned to the IHR core capacity requirements for surveillance including; ensuring a functional surveillance system to identify potential events of concern for public health and health security is in place; the surveillance system is supported by electronic tools, and supporting systematic analysis of surveillance data for action.

1. Strengthening surveillance systems to identify potential events of concern for public health and health security:

Since 2020, we have provided technical assistance to the MoH in strengthening surveillance systems. We supported the development of the national integrated epidemiology surveillance and response strategic plan 2021-2025, adaptation and rollout of the 3^rd edition Integrated Disease Surveillance and Response strategy (IDSR), a framework for implementation of indicator and event-based surveillance. Some of the achievements are

• Supported 3^rd edition IDSR adaptation and development of the Integrated Epidemiology, Surveillance and Response Strategic plan 2021 – 2025
• Provided technical support in IDSR rollout of in 48/148 districts in 6 Regions (Karamoja, Lango, North Central, West Nile, Rwenzori and Bunyoro) of the country
• Provided direct support to IDSR rollout in 17 districts and 2 cities in Rwenzori and Bunyoro Regions where 100 IDSR district-based mentors/trainers; 184 health facilities and 600 health workers have been trained.
• Provided TA to MoH in development protocols for Acute Febrile Illnesses (AFI) and Severe Acute Respiratory Illness (SARI) Influenza Like Illness (ILI) surveillance including COVID-19 genomic sequencing and Pan Respiratory Disease Surveillance (PRDS). AFI implementation has begun in Jinja Regional Referral Hospital, while SARI/ILI/COVID19/PRDS protocol is currently under review and approval

Together with other stakeholders we are providing technical assistance to MoH in strengthening one health event-based surveillance (EBS). The following are some of the achievements

• Developed of one health event-based surveillance technical documents (one health priority list, signal list, EBS manual and M&E plan), these are currently under approval by MoH
• Developed of one-health EBS training curriculum for national, district, sub-county, facility and community level, under approval by MoH
• Supported national one health EBS ToT, where 56 national trainers were trained
• Spearheaded development and piloting Regional EOC led one health EBS implementation in Kabarole District and Fort portal City in Rwenzori Region, where;
  • 22 district based one-health trainers/mentors have been trained in Fort Portal and Kabarole
  • 138 sub-county one-health EBS supervisors were trained in Fort Portal and Kabarole
  • Surveillance focal persons and Incharges from 26 facilities in Fort Port Portal and 36 in Kabarole were trained in Fort Portal and Kabarole.
  • 800 VHTs in Fort Portal and Kabarole were trained

2. Strengthening application of electronic tools in surveillance system

Baylor Uganda is supporting MoH in implementation of electronic tools in surveillance.  

• At the national level consultants seconded to the Division of Health Information, MoH have provide Technical Assistance in the development of a centralised surveillance data warehouse, which will increase access to available data for analysis, visualisation and use to inform epidemic intelligence
• Provided capacity building in implementation electronic tools for surveillance including DHIS2, electronic laboratory information system, electronic IDSR and GoData.
• Supported MoH in development of an event management system

3. Supporting systematic analysis of surveillance data for action

Baylor Uganda champions the routine analysis and utilization of data for action including monitoring, evaluating, and improving policies, programs, and services and facilitating the better allocation of resources.

• At the national level, the epidemiologists seconded to the IES&PHEs produce weekly epidemiological reports; the National EOC also produces dashboards and disseminates situation reports of events and ongoing outbreaks
• The national and regional EOCs produce analyses and disseminate epidemiologic interpretations of all major events at all levels.
• Through the routine analysis of surveillance data at both national and regional levels, the epidemiologists were able to identify bottlenecks to both timeliness and completeness of reporting in Rwenzori, Bunyoro, and Kampala Capital City Authority. The implementation of targeted mentorships has since improved completeness in the three regions to the national target of 80%.