Cell phone-based system (Chaak) for surveillance of immatures of dengue virus mosquito vectors.

Capture of surveillance data on mobile devices and rapid transfer of such data from these devices into an electronic database or data management and decision support systems promote timely data analyses and public health response during disease outbreaks. Mobile data capture is used increasingly for malaria surveillance and holds great promise for surveillance of other neglected tropical diseases. We focused on mosquito-borne dengue, with the primary aims of: 1) developing and field-testing a cell phone-based system (called Chaak) for capture of data relating to the surveillance of the mosquito immature stages, and 2) assessing, in the dengue endemic setting of Mérida, Mexico, the cost-effectiveness of this new technology versus paper-based data collection.