Somali Red Crescent Society (SRCS) supported by Norwegian Red Cross has been implementing CBS in Somaliland for several years. This methodology aims to reduce the high risk of epidemics by strengthening early warning and response from and at community level, particularly where there is a weak public health surveillance system. CBS is implemented through SRCS community volunteers, who report signals from the community via SMS to the software platform Nyss. This paper presents key findings from the CBS programme evaluation.

In August 2024, the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) and the World Health Organization (WHO) declared public health emergencies over a large epidemic of mpox - MPXV clade I in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and several other African countries.

Suggested interim guidance for the use of community-based surveillance in the context of mpox is available here, including suggested community case definitions, and considerations on whether CBS is a practical approach to complement other surveillance and response activities.

Short presentation on the Red Cross and Red Crescent approach to CBS, examples and where the Membership is conducting CBS today

Nyss is a custom software platform for data collection, management and analyses; tailored to the needs of the Red Cross Red Crescent Movement for community-based surveillance (CBS). Nyss allows for real-time detection, reporting, aggregation, and analysis of information on community health risks; hence enables prevention, identification and response to disease outbreaks, through early warning and early response.

Abstract Published: Analysing effectivness of Using the Nyss platform for CBS