Some reflections on a recent news item

	While reading the Deccan Herald (published in Bangalore) this morning I came across the following news item: "India next only to Nigeria in polio cases"
	New Delhi,PTI:
	According to an official of the National Pulse Polio Programme, out of 111 polio cases being reported globally this year till April 17, 54 cases were from Nigeria, while India registered 31 cases." This report came the morning after I had read about a study "Eradication versus control for poliomyelitis: An economic analysis" by Kimberly M. Thompson and Radboud J. Duintjer Tebbens. The Lancet 2007 (April 21 issue)" and was a real coincidence. Thanks, Ken, for sending us the link to this website. According to the study, the goal should be eradication and not just control of polio and that finally it is the better and more cost-effective option. See http://www.kidsrisk.harvard.edu/ for further details. Their study goes to prove that "prevention is cheaper than cure". Isha Garg

Our objective

Our objective is to see a field data collection solution, using handheld mobile devices such as PDAs, Internet Tablets, Smart-phones etc deployed in the Indian Disease Surveillance Programme as it will provide the following benefits:

• Improvements in the quality and accuracy of field data
  
• Reduction in time required to detect outbreaks through timely transmission of data
  
• Reduction in response time
  
• Reduction in transaction cost
  
• Provide feedback mechanism to the health-worker through short messaging services
  
• Ease of data collection and management for longitudinal cohort studies for diseases

What is Disease Surveillance?

Disease surveillance is an important tools of any public health-care programme that serves the following essential purposes

• For monitoring the progress of ongoing medical interventions for disease reduction
  
• For early detection of outbreaks to initiate investigative and control measures in disease control decisions
  
• For the evaluation of the efficacy of surveillance initiatives
  
• To provide a scientific basis for implementation of an appropriate health-care policy and the allocation of resources in the primary health-care system