AfyaData wins Global South e-Health Observatory Awards 2019

July 3, 2019

The AfyaData team of the SACIDS Foundation for One Health at Sokoine University of Agriculture won the Global South e-Health Observatory Award in Lavaur, France. AfyaData has become the first Tanzanian App to win the Global South E-Health Observatory awards.

Five most promising e-health initiatives of 2019 were rewarded, AfyaData being one of them and only one from Tanzania. Others included IeDA and mHealth from Burkina Faso, Khushi Baby from India and Smartphone Tele-Dermatology service from Mongolia.

AfyaData App is a set of open source mobile and web digital tools developed by the SACIDS Foundation for One Health based at Sokoine University (SUA) through support from the Ending Pandemics to enhance disease surveillance systems.

When asked about recent success of AfyaData, the leader Prof. Esron Karimuribo noted “AfyaData has recorded amazing achievements in supporting disease surveillance in animal and human populations in Tanzania and East and Southern African regions. The Fondation Pierre Fabre award will be used to extend use of AfyaData in promoting proper management of zoonotic diseases through e-based One Health Training of Frontline Healthcare Workers in Tanzania

AfyaData is an open-source app available for free from the Google Play store, works by enabling users to collect details on signs and symptoms of suspected diseases in communities, enter the information via the App and send it to a server where it is stored, synthesized and analysed by experts. It has additional modules to support feedbacks and two-way communications as well as a library which can be used as reference materials through the Health A-Z functionality.

The multilungual App, has introduced a “first aid kit” into its application, in the form of Health A- Z, which allows health centre managers to consult the available literature for each disease.

In mid-June 2018, AfyaData team was called to the Democratic Republic of the Congo at the end of the Ebola virus epidemic, where it trained trainers and set up a surveillance committee.The application is currently active in six regions in Tanzania: in the Ulanga, Kilosa and Malinyi Districts in Morogoro, Ngara on the Burundian border, Ngorongoro on the Kenyan border.

The Global South eHealth Observatory, a Fondation Pierre Fabre initiative, is designed to identify, document, promote and help develop eHealth initiatives that improve access to quality healthcare and medicines for the most disadvantaged populations in resource-limited countries.

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