This community innovation has been accepted at the 2026 DHIS2 Annual Conference and will be in abstract track/lightning talk.
DHIS2 Integrated Influenza Sentinel Surveillance
Context: Influenza is among climate sensitive diseases. Influenza surveillance via sentinel surveillance is recommended by WHO to monitor seasonality, and circulating/emerging viruses. In Lebanon, Influenza sentinel surveillance was set for inpatients in 2014, and for outpatients in 2021. The information system is using DHIS2 since 2021. Objectives: The objective is to describe the DHIS2 value for influenza sentinel surveillance system. Methods: Severe Acute Respiratory Infection and Influenza Like Illness were used as case definition to enroll inpatients and outpatients. For compliant patients, data and sample were collected at health facility. The data includes identification, demographics, illness, underlying conditions, vaccination status and travel history. The collected sample is naso-pharyngeal swab referred to the National Influenza Center NIC for PCR testing. The DHIS2 use the tracker capture. A first stage form related to patient and illness is completed by the health facility or the MOPH. A second stage form is completed by NIC on laboratory results, and readable by the health facility and the MOPH. Generic dashboard is displayed for health facilities and MOPH on descriptive findings including a line list with lab result. Additional national dashboards monitor results and performance. Moreover, DHIS2 based data is analyzed with R script to issue weekly bulletin posted on the MOPH website. Results: For the period 2021 2025, 5 seasons were monitored. For the outpatients, 12593 patients were enrolled, 11676 tested and 917 influenza positive. For the inpatients, 3318 were enrolled, 3089 tested and 440 influenza positive. Discussion: The use of DHIS2 has ensured timely laboratory result sharing and timely analysis at health facility and MOPH level. Moreover, the system has potential use for the climate change monitoring.
Primary Author: Nada Ghosn
Keywords:
influenza, sentinel surveillance, tracker capture, integrated disease surveilance
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