Community Health Volunteer's Training Manual - Population Council

Module 2 Community Mobilisation and Tools
100
Exercise 2.2.1: Group discussion
Objective
1. To discuss how to keep surveillance on
key diseases
Time: 20 minutes
Questions
1. What is disease surveillance?
2. What common diseases occur in your
community?
3. Which of these needs to be reported
immediately to the CHO?
Instructions to the Facilitator
1. Lead a brainstorming session
on common diseases in the
communities
2. Encourage each participant to
talk about his/her community
3. Compare and see which
ones are common to all
communities.
4. Discuss the need for constant
surveillance.
Community based surveillance is the process where community people and volunteers keep
watch over what is going on in the community and its surroundings and report such events
to the relevant authorities for necessary action.
Community health volunteers are like watchmen or health inspectors of the community.
CHVs collect data on the health of the community and CHPS service needs. The data
are often collected regularly i.e. daily, weekly or monthly from households or the entire
community. (See Table below.) These are then recorded in community registers or
individual household records. A disease like cholera should be reported as soon as it occurs
because it can spread rapidly and kill many people within a very short period. What do you
think will happen if you report the cholera cases after a week?
Data collected for community surveillance
To carry out effective community surveillance you need baseline data of the community,
as discussed in Unit 1. This would inform you about the basic characteristics of the
community. The population and its structure, the physical infrastructure and lifestyles are
essential baseline information that affect health and its outcomes. If you know what is on the
ground initially you can determine whether something is going on well or not. The tables
below provide some of the information you need to collect as your baseline data. These
should be recorded in your community demographic register. As you carry out community
surveillance you will be comparing your observations and data collected with what the
situation was like initially.
Table 2.2.1: Community Surveillance Register
Name of community:
Sub-district:
District: Region:
Total Population: Population Under 1 year:
Number of compounds:
Major ethnic groups: