Using Cell Phones for Mosquito Vector Surveillance and Control

Novel, low-cost approaches to improving prevention and control of vector-borne diseases, such as mosquito-borne dengue and malaria, are needed in resource-constrained environments. The Chaak application supports the use of cell phones for field capture and rapid transfer of mosquito vector surveillance data to a central database. The cell phones exploit existing communication infrastructure, introduce near real-time monitoring, and provide rapid feedback to field data collectors. Dengue is a mostly an urban disease, thus occurring in environments that often have good cell phone coverage. Cell phones eliminate the need for physical data communication. A preliminary evaluation shows that the use of cell phones can lower labor costs, data collection time, and transcription errors. Keywords-Android applications; dengue; mosquito control; mosquito immatures; public health; field testing