Dengue cases surge in Bengaluru: Disease surveillance dashboard, app launched

In response to the rising number of dengue cases in the city, Karnataka's Health and Family Welfare Minister, Dinesh Gundu Rao, introduced a disease surveillance dashboard and a mobile application on Friday (September 8). These tools aim to enhance monitoring and control measures for the vector-borne disease.

The dashboard, a disease forecasting software, has been developed in partnership with the Department of Health, Bengaluru municipal corporation — Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) — and the AI and Robotics Technology Park (ARTPARK ) at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) to assist policymakers and public health officials in preparing for outbreaks and managing disease control activities.

According to officials, the dashboard uses Artificial Intelligence to predict a surge in infections four weeks in advance. It provides a map of outbreaks across Karnataka at the district and sub-district levels along with case trends across years. A 4-week predictive risk map of outbreaks will also be made available to state and district officers. In addition to predictions, data from multiple sources is being standardised and streamlined for improved analysis.

Both the dashboard and mobile app are focused on dengue, to begin with, and the aim is to expand to additional diseases in the future, the officials said.

On Thursday, the health minister along with officials reviewed the measures taken by the BBMP in containing the spread of dengue.

More than 3,200 dengue cases have been reported in Bengaluru in the past two months, said the minister who has directed the civic body to intensify their efforts to control the spread of the virus.

According to him, 1,649 and 1,590 dengue cases were detected in July and August, respectively. As many as 416 cases have come to light in September so far.

The cases are on the rise because of stagnant rain waters, Rao told reporters on Thursday. He added that pesticides are being sprayed in Bengaluru to get rid of mosquitoes, which carry the virus.

Rao said he has asked the BBMP to increase testing for dengue in its six high-tech labs.

Dr Bhaskar Rajakumar, director, healthcare, ARTPARK, IISc told PTI that the dashboard is a comprehensive disease surveillance platform for monitoring and forecasting. It is developed to give a real time picture of the case scenario in a specific jurisdiction to help field-level officers.

It will also help them in analysing the trends in specific jurisdictions and in decision making and resource planning. It will also help them in planning actions such as testing, surveys, and source reduction activities. The second feature is the predictive analytical platform – Artificial Intelligence driven forecasting platform.

“We have used AI to come out with a prediction module. We have analysed multiple parameters which might impact the spread of dengue and tried to collate and integrate all these data and come out with a prediction. By analysing the variation in parameters, the database can give a picture if there is a probability of a surge in cases in your jurisdiction in the next four weeks,” he said.

The officials said the dashboard can be accessed only by the healthcare workers and health officials as of now and soon it will be made available for the public, to view the latest data related to dengue cases in their specific jurisdictions.

The mobile app is also linked to the dashboard but it functions independently. As of now, the mobile app is piloted in BBMP jurisdiction. ASHA (Accredited Social Health Activist) workers, medical officers, healthcare workers, and those entrusted with spraying pesticides will be using the application.

“It will be used to streamline source reduction and survey-related activities (fever survey, larval survey, house-to-house health survey etc). It can be used by medical officers to verify and review various activities as well as for training purposes and putting out information to educate and create awareness among the public through videos and photographs or interactive sessions about the preventive measures to be taken to curb the disease,” Dr Rajakumar said.

(With agency inputs)