Auto-Visual AFP Detection and Reporting (AVADAR)

Auto-Visual AFP Detection and Reporting (AVADAR) is a mobile sms-based software application designed to improve the quality and sensitivity of Acute Flaccid Paralysis (AFP) surveillance by health workers and key informants within hospital facilities and local communities.

Auto-Visual AFP Detection and Reporting (AVADAR) is a multi-country project currently operational in 11 polio high-risk countries in Africa: Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Liberia, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, and South Sudan. eHealth Africa has provided downstream technology support in eight of these countries and continues to support ground operations in two countries, while providing equipment support in six of these countries.

Acute Flaccid Paralysis (AFP) is the main indicator of polio. AVADAR improves the traditional AFP surveillance systems by “widening the net” of disease reporters and using an sms-based mobile technology to improve the completeness, timeliness, and availability of AFP reporting. When informants report suspected AFP cases, automatic case alerts are sent to the appropriate disease surveillance officers who go to investigate, while the resulting data is automatically aggregated, visualized, and made available for decision makers.