New app for reporting infectious diseases can help curb outbreaks
Doctors and nurses will now be able to report infectious diseases on their phones‚ thanks to a new app.The new, notifiable disease surveillance system includes a mobile app and a web platform that will allow doctors and nurses to report any diseases that may be prone to becoming outbreaks to the Department of Health.The system‚ developed by the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD)‚ comes after a listeriosis outbreak killed at least 193 people.Dr Portia Mutevedzi‚ of the NICD‚ told TimesLIVE that timely detection and notification of communicable diseases could help prevent widespread outbreaks. "Recent measles‚ typhoid and listeriosis outbreaks in SA emphasise the need for an effective [notifiable medical conditions] surveillance system." The previous paper-based system was significantly flawed‚ according to a study published this month in the journal PLOS One. It found that only half of healthcare providers in three provinces correctly reported communicable or infecti...
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