Yemen Red Crescent Society
Dates of implementation: October 2023-present
Settings: Dhamar, Hadramout and Sana'a Governorates
Context: Preparedness
Data collection system: Short-coded SMS messages to Ministry of Health's Epidemiological Surveillance Department
Partners: IFRC, European Union, Danish Red Cross, Norwegian Red Cross
The Yemen Red Crescent Society (YRCS) has established Community-Based Surveillance (CBS) with support from IFRC and the Danish Red Cross through the Programmatic Partnership, funded by the European Union.
Volunteers are detecting and reporting potential infectious disease cases in Dhamar, Sayun and Sana'a governorates using the Nyss platform.
Priority diseases for CBS in Yemen are: measles, diphtheria, cholera, flu & upper respiratory infection, dengue fever, malaria, and whooping cough.
In coordination with the Ministry of Health (MoH), 135 YRCS & MoH volunteers have been trained in Community-Based Surveillance (CBS) and Community-Based Health and First Aid (CBHFA).
As of April 2025, 85 YRCS & MOH health volunteers are detecting and reporting potential disease outbreaks as part of regular community health and hygiene awareness sessions, to raise community knowledge on how to prevent and protect themselves from diseases with epidemic potential.
In the first year of CBS implementation, volunteers attained consistently high “true” alert levels, with 80 % of alerts raised to MoH within 24 hours and responded to with appropriate actions (e.g. household visits for case definition, health promotion, sharing of information, education and communication (IEC) materials)