Participatory syndromic surveillance as a tool for tracking COVID-19 in Bangladesh

• DOI: 10.1016/j.epidem.2021.100462
• Publication Date: 2021-04-20T21:35:54Z
• Authors: Ayesha S. Mahmud; Shayan Chowdhury; Kawsar Hossain Sojib; Anir Chowdhury; Md. Tanvir Quader; Sangita Paul; Md. Sheikh Saidy; Ramiz Uddin; Kenth Engø-Monsen; Caroline O. Buckee
• Keywords: Pandemic; Disease Surveillance; Public health surveillance; Tracking (education)

Limitations in laboratory diagnostic capacity and reporting delays have hampered efforts to mitigate control the ongoing coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic globally. To augment traditional lab hospital-based surveillance, Bangladesh established a participatory surveillance system for public self-report symptoms consistent with COVID-19 through multiple channels. Here, we report on use of this system, which received over 3 million responses within two months, tracking outbreak Bangladesh. Although observe considerable noise data initial volatility different mechanisms, self-reported syndromic exhibits strong association lab-confirmed cases at local scale. Moreover, also suggests an earlier spread across than is evident from confirmed case counts, predicted based population mobility data. Our results highlight usefulness mapping burden generally, particularly during phases emerging outbreak.