Understanding Strategies for Implementing Integrated Information Systems for Rabies Surveillance

Rabies continues to be one of the most perilous viral diseases that affect the nervous system and remains a significant threat to public health across the globe. Available data that show that rabies claims about 59,000 human lives annually. Most industrialized countries have eliminated rabies from domestic dog populations. Conversely, in most of the developing countries, rabies remains endemic in domestic dog populations and poorly controlled. One of the challenges in eradicating rabies in developing countries is attributed to ineffective surveillance systems. Different stakeholders have developed solutions to address this problem without tangible outcomes. Estimation of the economic burden particularly in developing countries is difficult because of the inadequacy of update and reliable surveillance data. Certainly, it is very challenging even to obtain basic information on how many human lives are lost due to rabies and the economics behind preventing the disease amongst those exposed. Up-to-date, official reporting of incidence data on rabies and rabies exposures status remains desperately poor in most canine rabies-endemic countries. Consequently, there is increasingly underestimation of the true burden of the diseases. Worse still data from active surveillance studies highlight the disparities between officially reported and recorded and likely occurring rabies deaths. In some cases, it has been shown that there are higher mortality rates than officially reported data, especially in resource deprived areas. This calls for a need to establish an integrated surveillance system, which allows data to be shared openly among different stakeholders dealing with rabies. The paper presents the state of art of rabies in Tanzania and evaluates the application of ICT in surveillance. It also advocates for a need of a comprehensive approach to addressing the problem. Development and adoption of integrated surveillance systems for rabies and other zoonotic diseases remain a nightmare in many developing countries including Tanzania. This paper calls for the development of an integrated standard mechanism for countries to assess their rabies status and measure progress in eliminating the disease. Such a system will fill the missing link between surveillance and control measures.