Strengthening community-based surveillance and early detection: Training local health workers and community networks to enhance early outbreak warnings and risk communication [Conference Abstract]

Conference Abstract | Volume 8, Abstract ELIC202576 (Oral 120) | Published: 18 Aug 2025

Strengthening community-based surveillance and early detection: Training local health workers and community networks to enhance early outbreak warnings and risk communication

Bright Boateng^1,&, Elsie Seyram Agboto¹

Department of Pharmacy Practice, School of Pharmacy, Central University, Accra, Ghana

^&Corresponding author: Bright Boateng, School of Pharmacy, Central University, Accra, Ghana. Email: brightboateng360@gmail.com

Received: 21 Jun 2025, Accepted: 09 Jul 2025, Published: 18 Aug 2025

Domain: Infectious Disease Epidemiology

This is part of the Proceedings of the ECOWAS 2nd Lassa fever International Conference in Abidjan, September 8 – 11, 2025

Keywords: Community-Based Surveillance, Disease Outbreak Detection, Risk Communication, Health Worker Training

^©Bright Boateng 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: Bright Boateng et al., Strengthening community-based surveillance and early detection: training local health workers and community networks to enhance early outbreak warnings and risk communication. Journal of Interventional Epidemiology and Public Health. 2025;8(ConfProc5):00120. https://doi.org/10.37432/JIEPH-CONFPRO5-00120

Introduction

Effective community-based surveillance (CBS) is essential for timely outbreak detection, especially in low-resource settings. Gaps such as limited frontline health worker training and weak reporting systems prompted a targeted intervention in rural Ghana.

Methods

A mixed-methods, pre-post intervention study was conducted across three rural districts in Ghana’s Eastern Region. The study involved 150 community health officers, surveillance volunteers, and local leaders selected through purposive and snowball sampling. Structured questionnaires and focus group discussions were used for data collection. Quantitative data were analyzed with SPSS v26, while qualitative data were thematically coded.

Results

Post-training, 92% of participants could identify priority disease symptoms, up from 48% pre-training. Notification time decreased from 6.2 to 2.1 days. Reporting accuracy improved by 35%, with verified alerts increasing from 23 to 68 in three months. Communities reported improved trust in health workers and higher engagement in surveillance efforts.

Conclusion

Training community-level actors significantly enhances CBS efficiency and risk communication. Institutionalizing such training within district health systems is recommended to strengthen Ghana’s integrated disease surveillance and response (IDSR) framework.

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Keywords

Community-Based Surveillance
Disease Outbreak Detection
Risk Communication
Health Worker Training