Short message service sentinel surveillance of influenza-like illness in Madagascar, 2008-2012/Surveillance electronique des maladies de type grippal a Madagascar, 2008-2012/Servicio de vigilancia centinela de una enfermedad similar a la gripe con mensajes cortos en Madagascar, 2008-2012

Approach surveillance tools with well-timed, validated data are necessary to strengthen disease surveillance. In 2007 Madagascar implemented a sentinel surveillance system for influenza-like illness (ILI) based on data collected from sentinel general practitioners. Relevant changes An innovative case reporting system based on the use of cell phones was launched in March 2007. Encrypted short message service, which costs less than 2 United States dollars per month per health centre, is now being used by sentinel general practitioners for the daily reporting of cases of fever and ILI seen in their practices. To validate the daily data, practitioners also report epidemiological and clinical data (e.g. new febrile patient's sex, age, visit date, symptoms) weekly to the epidemiologists on the research team using special patient forms. Approche Des outils de surveillance munis de donnees opportunes et validees sont necessaires pour renforcer la surveillance des maladies. En 2007, Madagascar a mis en place un systeme de surveillance sentinelle des maladies de type grippal (MTG), base sur les donnees collectees chez des medecins generalistes de type sentinelle.