Syndromic Early Warning Surveillance Networks in Kenya

Early detection is key to controlling disease outbreaks in the developing countries. In Kenya a small scale surveillance system is being established by a local network known as Khwisero Animal Health Surveillance Network (KAHSN), In Kakamega County of Western Kenya, KAHSN draws on the disease detection capabilities of practicing veterinarians, district and regional diagnostic laboratories and the national government.

The KAHSN bolsters Khwisero’s domestic early warning surveillance capacity for detecting new and emerging diseases of animals that could affect animal health, the food supply or public health. It brings together animal disease surveillance information from many sources - veterinary practitioners, veterinary diagnostic laboratories and animal health agencies - so that baselines can be established and trends identified. By amalgamating information gathered from surveys, syndromic surveillance and rumour reports from the field, tracking the on-going animal health status of the country will be improved.

The identification of aberrant trends of disease outbreaks prompts further investigation and assessment of situations. Since early detection is key to early control of any disease outbreak, the KAHSN is an important component of Kenyas’ defense against serious threats to animal and human health.

Animal disease surveillance supports Kenyas’ ability to recognize and deal with emerging animal disease problems. Surveillance also plays an import role in providing Kenyan livestock and poultry products access to more markets. Major notifiable diseases of livestock are routinely monitored and outbreaks reported in a established but laborious, if not erratic system.
Avian influenza (H1N1) is of major focus and its invariably undetected due to inadequate surveillance personell and laboratory facilities in the marginalized and rural areas. A collaboration between the Veterinary offices and regional research laboratories would enhance the detection and reporting of this(H1N1) and other Zoonotic infections.

The Khwisero District Veterinary Office is establishing a small scale model “Khwisero Animal Health Surveillance Network (KAHSN)” ; its collaborative network of animal health surveillance and diagnostic system to improve the capacity to detect emerging animal disease threats in real time. The KAHSN focuses particularly on those animal disease threats that could have zoonotic potential and provide a rapid response to minimize the human health and economic risks to Khwisero District.

The KAHSN combines surveillance data received from many sources and simultaneously alerts both human and animal health authorities in other jurisdictions within Western Kenya when potential animal disease threats are identified.

The key outputs of the KAHSN are:
• An early warning system for animal disease threats to the food supply, food safety or public health;
• A regional laboratory network for the rapid diagnosis of serious infectious animal diseases; and
• An information-sharing network linking national and international research agencies and departments of animal and human health

Features of the KAHSN
The model is set on open source softwares that enable suite of to collect, aggregate and visualize data, Mainly Open data Kit (ODK), will be utilised to aggreagate GIS data and mobile phone devices with The Android Emulators SDK, these successfuly ran a realtime data collection and synchronization to local internet servers. The use of interactive risk maps will enable faster emergency reactions in suspected outbreaks.

KAHSN will collaborate with the Khwisero Network for Public Health Intelligence (KNPHI) to establish rapid communication and identification of emerging animal and human disease issues. This newly established network increases the surge capacity of regional laboratories to rapidly diagnose serious and infectious animal diseases. By combining their diagnostic surge capacities with those of provincial and university laboratories that have diagnostic capabilities for foreign animal disease, the response to an outbreak is being enhanced. This establishes interoperability between laboratories by using common protocols and reagents. It also allows technical and scientific staff to exchange, participate in and share expertise.