Conference Abstract | Volume 8, Abstract ELIC2025206 (Poster 160) | Published: 06 Aug 2025
Lionel Solété Sogbossi1, Virgil Kuassi Lokossou1, Guy Gerard Kouamé2, Aisha Usman1, Ermel Johnson1, Roméo Adégbité1, Félix Agbla1, Melchior Athanase Aïssi1
1West African Health Organization, Bobo Dioulasso, Burkina Faso, 2Private sector Côte d’Ivoire
&Corresponding author: Lionel Solété Sogbossi, West African Health Organization, Bobo Dioulasso, Burkina Faso, Email: lsogbossi@wahooas.org
Received: 31 May 2025, Accepted: 09 Jul 2025, Published: 06 Aug 2025
Domain: Infectious Disease Epidemiology
Keywords: Zoonotic diseases, SIS-OT, One Health surveillance, Data sharing, West Africa.
©Lionel Solété Sogbossi et al. Journal of Interventional Epidemiology and Public Health (ISSN: 2664-2824). This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution International 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Cite this article: Lionel Solété Sogbossi et al., From silos to synergy: Implementing SIS-OT to strengthen coordinated zoonotic disease surveillance in West Africa. Journal of Interventional Epidemiology and Public Health. 2025;8(ConfProc5):00304. https://doi.org/10.37432/JIEPH-CONFPRO5-00304
Zoonotic diseases remain a top health threat in ECOWAS, driven by human-animal-environment interactions. The Tripartite Zoonoses Guide promotes cross-sector collaboration to strengthen surveillance and response. The Surveillance and Information Sharing Operational Tool (SIS OT), developed by the Quadripartite, was deployed to enhance coordinated surveillance systems. This study evaluates SIS OT implementation in six West African countries and highlights key challenges.
From 2022 to 2025, national SIS OT workshops were conducted in Sierra Leone, Mali, Senegal, Guinea, Nigeria, and Côte d’Ivoire. Regional and international facilitators supported multisectoral participants from health, animal, and environmental sectors, along with agriculture, and security. Countries used the standardized SIS OT workbook to self-assess 32 activities grouped under five domains: pre-planning, assessment, planning, implementation, and monitoring & evaluation. They rated capacity levels, set priorities, and developed country specific SIS OT roadmaps. A mixed methods approach combining descriptive and content analysis was used to assess outcomes.
Across the six countries, over 70% of the 32 evaluated activities using the SIS OT tool were rated at the lowest capacity level (Target Level 1). Senegal and Guinea emerged with relatively stronger capacities, particularly in stakeholder mapping, notification, and simulation exercises. Nigeria showed moderate advancement in stakeholder engagement and compliance with international reporting requirements but continued to lag in data integration and surveillance implementation. Mali, Sierra Leone, and Côte d’Ivoire demonstrated limited capacity across all five operational domains. Only a small number of activities reached the “Complete” level, mostly those linked to international notification. Common challenges included weak legal mandates for data sharing, poor interoperability, underfunded laboratories, and limited accountability mechanisms. All countries developed 5-year, costed SIS OT plans with clear governance and follow-up structures.
SIS OT provided a strong foundation for advancing One Health surveillance. While major capacity gaps persist, the approach catalyzed national ownership, fostered multisectoral dialogue, and produced actionable roadmaps. Sustained investment and collaboration are now essential to transform these plans into resilient, responsive surveillance systems.
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