Published on Dec 15, 2016
Controlling dengue requires timely reporting from the affected community. Simply put, if mosquito larvae can be controlled, dengue can be controlled.
The Laos Department of Communicable Diseases Control (DCDC), Skoll Global Threats Fund (SGTF) and InSTEDD iLab Southeast Asia have begun an initiative to combat the spread of dengue through the use of mobile technology.
In 2014, an Epidemiology Hackathon (epihack) was conducted to address dengue control in Laos. After days of collaboration between coding experts and epidemiologists, several technological prototypes emerged. With the continued support from SGTF, InSTEDD iLab Southeast Asia supported the further development of Larvae Control Surveys to support the Laos DCDC to pilot a mobile solution with all districts in the Vientiane capital.
On November 24-26, 2016, an additional mobile solution for responding to the threat of Dengue Fever in Laos was launched.
This time, nine districts in the Vientiane capital were trained on how to use a phone application to submit larvae survey data. CMPE, Malaria Station, and the Vientiane health capital department were trained to use a web-based mapping application to collect and aggregate submitted phone data from various districts.
The training was led by DCDC staff, and local Laos developers, with the support from the iLab Southeast Asia team. During the two-day training event, participants from nine districts – staff Ministry of Health, DCDC, WHO, Laos Developers and ETL mobile operators – were introduced to this mobile application, which enables the ministry of health to collect data on Dengue Larvae more efficiently, and in a timely manner.
Vientiane, the capital city of Laos will be the first deployment, with four main objectives:
Strengthen the capability to collect and report larvae in a timely manner
2. Enhance the awareness on dengue and larvae control to the public
3. Strengthen dengue control on a district and provincial level sustainably
4. Enhance the capacity of human resources in terms of larvae reporting and control nationwide
ETL, a leading mobile operator in Laos, jointly supports the project by providing free mobile data internet to districts for reporting use. This contribution enables long term sustainability for the deployment of this mobile solution in Laos for dengue control.
Ms. Channe Suy Lan, Regional Lead of the iLab Southeast Asia said, “I believe the Dengue Larvae Application is a very useful system to support MoH in fast data collection and getting fast response to the Dengue epidemic in the future. The success of dengue control in Laos will set a great example for other countries in the Mekong region”
