As the world becomes more interconnected, the rapid detection of emerging health threats is increasingly critical to protecting global health. Event-Based Surveillance (EBS) systems, which capture and analyze information through media reports, community alerts, or rumors, often identify signals of potential outbreaks or public health risks before they turn into emergencies.
In Egypt, the Ministry of Health and Population (MoHP) has been strengthening its EBS platform, launched in 2015, to improve early warning and response capacity. Through the PROTECT project, the Institute for Global Health Sciences (IGHS) at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) collaborated with the MoHP to rebuild the system and integrate it with other national surveillance systems.
In February 2023, UCSF launched a multidisciplinary workshop in Cairo with IT specialists, epidemiologists, and international partners to review the existing EBS system and identify strengths and areas for improvement. During the workshop, the MoHP IT team demonstrated clear commitment and capacity to strengthening the national surveillance system. At the same time, the workshop highlighted the need for a more scalable and flexible platform to meet growing data demands and enable interoperability with systems such as the National Electronic Disease Surveillance System (NEDSS). As a result, a full system rebuild was initiated.
Following the workshop, UCSF worked closely with the MoHP IT team to design and implement the new system. Egyptian software developer Ahmed Abouzaid supported system development and ensured that the platform was both user-friendly and matched the requirements. The work was supported by Program Manager Farah Massoud, who coordinated across MoHP teams and UCSF, and by Health Informatics Hub Deputy Director David Mugume, who provided technical guidance on system architecture and informatics processes. Together, the team supported the introduction of structured development workflows, improved data handling processes and system features designed to enhance usability and performance.
Additionally, capacity-building efforts strengthened the MoHP’s technical skills in Power BI and R to support dashboards development and data analysis. Integration between EBS and NEDSS is also underway, enabling the signals detected through event-based surveillance to be linked with indicator-based disease system, which systematically reports case-based health indicators. Following deployment of the new system, a mobile application was also developed to support field-level signal reporting and improve timeliness of notifications and response.
The new EBS system was piloted and officially launched in December 2024. Since then, more than 1,000,000 signals have been reported. Each reported signal is reviewed and triaged by surveillance teams to assess its credibility and risk, where verified signals can trigger further investigation and deployment of rapid response teams to contain potential outbreaks. This process highlights the critical role of EBS in transforming early signals into actionable public health responses.
These EBS system developments represent an important step toward strengthening Egypt’s early warning system and improving the country’s ability to detect and respond to public health threats. By combining technical system improvements with workforce capacity-building and multisectoral collaboration, the initiative supports a sustainable, integrated surveillance approach aligned with Egypt’s One Health framework.
“This work goes beyond a single system. It is about creating an integrated surveillance system where data from multiple sectors can be brought together, analyzed, and used for public health action. That is where we begin to see the real value of a One Health approach.” said David Mugume, Deputy Director of the UCSF Health Informatics Hub.
Egypt’s experience demonstrates the value of collaborative partnerships and sustained investment in surveillance systems that can detect risks early and support timely public health responses.
Banner photo: Software developer Ahmed Abouzaid and David Mugume, Deputy Director of the UCSF Health Informatics Hub presenting EBS stages and business rules during a 2023 Egypt workshop supporting system redevelopment and IT capacity building.