Mobile Messaging as Surveillance Tool during Pandemic (H1N1) 2009, Mexico

Mobile Messaging as Surveillance Tool during Pandemic (H1N1) 2009, Mexico To the Editor: Pandemic (H1N1) 2009 highlighted challenges faced by disease surveillance systems. New approaches to complement traditional surveillance are needed, and new technologies provide new opportunities. We evaluated cell phone technology for surveillance of infl uenza outbreaks during the outbreak of pandemic (H1N1) 2009 in Mexico. On May 12, 2009, at 2:20 PM, a random sample of 982,708 telephones from an 18 million nationwide network of mostly prepaid cell phones (1) received a text message invitation to a Ministry of Health survey. Infl uenza-like illness (ILI) in April, date of fever onset, severity, number of household members with ILI, age, infl uenza vaccination, household size, and number of children in each household were assessed (online Technical Appendix Figure EID/content/16/9/1488-Techapp.pdf). ILI was defi ned as fever and cough or sore throat, and severe ILI was defi ned as inability to work, study, or maintain family care. Unstructured supplementary service data, an interactive platform available on most cell phones, was used. We obtained daily counts of suspected and confi rmed cases of pandemic (H1N1) 2009 from the nationwide clinic-based surveillance system Sistema Nacional de Vigilancia Epidemiolgica (SINAVE) (2,3).