TY - JOUR AU - Kinkade, Carl AU - Russpatrick, Scott AU - Potter, Rebecca AU - Saebo, Johan AU - Sloan, Michelle AU - Odongo, George AU - Singh, Tushar AU - Gallagher, Kathleen T1 - Extending and Strengthening Routine DHIS2 Surveillance Systems for COVID-19 Responses in Sierra Leone, Sri Lanka, and Uganda T2 - Emerging Infectious Disease journal PY - 2022 VL - 28 IS - 13 SP - 42 SN - 1080-6059 AB - The COVID-19 pandemic challenged countries to protect their populations from this emerging disease. One aspect of that challenge was to rapidly modify national surveillance systems or create new systems that would effectively detect new cases of COVID-19. Fifty-five countries leveraged past investments in District Health Information Software version 2 (DHIS2) to quickly adapt their national public health surveillance systems for COVID-19 case reporting and response activities. We provide background on DHIS2 and describe case studies from Sierra Leone, Sri Lanka, and Uganda to illustrate how the DHIS2 platform, its community of practice, long-term capacity building, and local autonomy enabled countries to establish an effective COVID-19 response. With these case studies, we provide valuable insights and recommendations for strategies that can be used for national electronic disease surveillance platforms to detect new and emerging pathogens and respond to public health emergencies. KW - COVID-19 KW - respiratory infections KW - severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 KW - SARS-CoV-2 KW - SARS KW - coronavirus disease KW - zoonoses KW - viruses KW - coronavirus KW - DHIS2 KW - District Health Information Software KW - surveillance KW - Sierra Leone KW - Sri Lanka KW - Uganda KW - surveillance systems DO - 10.3201/eid2813.220711 UR - https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/28/13/22-0711_article ER - End of Reference