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Korogwe Health and Demographic Surveillance System (HDSS) covers 14 villages in Korogwe district, Tanga Region, north-eastern Tanzania. It is coordinated by National Institute for Medical Research (NIMR), Tanga Centre.
The primary aim of the Korogwe HDSS is to generate health and population related information in an area without a system for routine collection of vital events. It also to generate data for planning and evaluating clinical trials and other interventions which are either currently being or will be undertaken in this platform. Priority areas are malaria, HIV/AIDS, TB and Health system research.
Prior to its establishment, village selection was done in October 2005 followed by meetings with village leaders and the entire community to obtain community consent for participation in the study. Thereafter, a baseline census was conducted using field workers (enumerators) who were recruited from the same area as part of community engagement and participation. The enumerators were trained on how to conduct interviews and fill in the information in baseline census questionnaires and other study tools. The baseline census which was conducted in November 2005 helped to obtain background information of the study population before a longitudinal surveillance system was established in January 2006.
Routine updates of demographic data including deaths, births, changes in marital status, and migration is done 3 times annually.
Verbal autopsies are conducted to establish the causes of deaths /reported through regular HDSS rounds. In collecting such data, a VA questionnaire is usually administered to parents/close relatives of the deceased / within a period of 2 - 6 weeks from the date of death by a trained field worker Other research activities undertaken in this platform included: Social economic status and coverage of expanded program on immunization (Epi-coverage) which were assessed between January and April 2006 and Malariometric surveys in the 14 villages between October 2006 and June 2007. Monitoring of malaria febrile illness in the community is ongoing since January 2006, where a passive case detection of cases using Community-owned Resource Persons residing in the same areas is implemented in six of the villages.
Management of HDSS data is done using HRS2 software for demographic data and Microsoft Access for other types of data. The databases are linked by a unique identifier which is a HDSS personal identification number.
Supervision of field activities involves regular visits by a supervisor, surprise visit by the supervisor and/scientist, accompanied interviews (field worker conducts interviews in the presence of a supervisor/scientist), re-interviews (revisiting the household by the supervisor to re-interview the respondents), monthly meetings and training at the end of each round.
By December 2012, the HDSS area is expected to expand to cover 36 more villages with estimated population of over 63,000, which will bring the number of villages to 50 and a population of over 91,000 people.