Cholera Public Health Surveillance System in Cameroon

Introduction Effective infectious disease public health surveillance systems are often lacking in resource poor settings. In response, the World Health Organization (WHO) put forword recommnded standards for public health surveillence.[1] Following the recommendations, the WHO Regional Office for Africa (AFRO) in 1998 proposed the Integrated Dieases Surveillance and Response (IDSR) strategy for the prompt detection and response to key communicable diseases in the African region.[2,3] In 2003, Cameroon adopted the IDSR-strategy to fortify surveillance in the country. We describe cholera surveillance within IDSR-strategy, and assess whether its goal of data analysis and rapid response at the district level have been met.