Mobile Phones As Surveillance Tools: Implementing and Evaluating a Large-Scale Intersectoral Surveillance System for Rabies in Tanzania

Points• Surveillance is critical to manage preventative health services and control infectious diseases.Integrated surveillance involving public health, veterinary, and environmental sectors is urgently needed to effectively manage zoonoses and vector-borne diseases.However, most surveillance in low-income countries is paper-based, provides negligible timely feedback, is poorly incentivised, and results in delays, limited reporting, inaccurate data, and costly processing.• The potential of mobile technologies for improving health system surveillance has been demonstrated through small-scale pilots, but large-scale evaluations under programmatic implementation remain rare.