OVERVIEW
CoughWatchSA is a digital participatory surveillance platform launched by the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) for influenza-like Illnesses (ILI) in South Africa. The program was launched as a pilot in 2022 and 2023. This year the NICD is launching CoughWatchSA as an official surveillance program that will complement already existing facility-based surveillance for ILI. This platform is open to all South African residents who are 18 years and older. Participants in this program are requested to report every week whether they have respiratory symptoms or not. In addition to this, demographic data, lifestyle factors, underlying medical conditions and vaccination status for seasonal influenza. Participants who reside in Johannesburg, Durban and Cape Town are eligible to enrol in the home-based testing program, where they can request for a test for influenza and Sars-CoV2, from the comfort of their home. Participants who submit four symptom reports per month will receive a R50 cash voucher as a token of appreciation. Take a moment to go through the website and help us improve our efforts towards real-time surveillance for respiratory illness.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
1. What is CoughWatchSA all about?
CoughWatchSA is a web application designed for monitoring respiratory illness in South Africa. Anyone in South Africa can take part. Participants are asked to report on a weekly basis if they have any symptoms or not in order to identify possible new spreads of flu (and other respiratory infections). For more information about CWSA, and what it involves, see the project.
2. How should I choose a username and password?
You will need a working email address in order to register which will serve as your username and a chosen password.
If you have forgotten your password or username, you can request a new password through the web platform.
3. Is all data anonymous? Who can see the information I send?
Yes. All data is completely anonymised upon submission, it will not be possible to link the information provided to any individual or household.
4. Where is my data stored?
After being anonymised, data is stored in a secure data layer on our servers (Google Cloud) and only the study team will have access to your data in an anonymised manner.
5. Who are you gathering data for and who benefits?
Two groups benefitt from this information immediately. First, citizens like yourself, who gain access to valuable information about respiratory cases in your community. This information allows you to prepare and react quickly to risks in your community. Second, the National Institute for Communicable Diseases, for the purpose of preparation, outbreak detection, and targeted response.
6. Can I invite my colleagues, peers or family?
Yes, please invite as many others as you can. More data means more powerful models and better outputs and results.
7. Can I answer the survey for other people?
Yes, only on behalf of your children if you are the parent or legal guardian. You will register using a valid email account and through your account, you can add other profiles which will be recognised as users linked to your account.
8. What if I am away or unable to answer the survey for some time? Will I be disqualified?
No, please just resume answering the survey as soon as possible. The survey links are sent via email so you can complete these anywhere in the world.
9. Can I change my email address?
No, accounts are linked directly to an email. If you to change your email you would need to create a new account and unsubscribe from the current account.
10. How secure is the system?
All connections are secured using HTTPS. Only encrypted passwords are stored.
For more FAQs, click below:
COUGHWATCHSA faq Document (2023)
This report is based on data collected from 9 March – 24 May 2022.
Highlights
- From a good start in March with 123 enrolments, the number of new enrolments increased by 48% by the 4th week and thereafter no new enrolments have been recorded to date. The number of active participants has fluctuated over the weeks with an average of 40% of participants active each week.
- Proportion of people reporting fever and cough is increasing each week – reflecting increasing COVID-19 circulation and also that we are entering the winter respiratory virus season
- 36% of people were eligible for home based testing, from which 76% were successfully enrolled. Remember if you have symptoms and live in Johannesburg, Hill Crest/Durban, Cape Town and surrounding areas you can access free home-based testing through linking to the cough check program
- Overall 40% of tested people tested positive for COVID19
- Overall 8% of tested people tested positive for influenza
- Overall 2 of tested people tested positive for RSV
COUGHWATCHSA MONTHLY REPORT (May 2022)
