CoughWatchSA

DISCLOSURE: CoughWatchSA has been developed for use in South Africa only. The contact tracing functionality of the app does not involve the use of Bluetooth, geolocation nor other functionality running in background while you are not using the app actively. It is based solely in the information you provide periodically through questionnaires.

CoughWatchSA is an app for monitoring user-reported symptoms for acute respiratory tract infection (ARI) potentially associated with COVID-19 and other respiratory pathogens. This type of platform has been implemented successfully in Europe, Australia, USA and Mexico for syndromic surveillance and allows for early detection of increases and variations over time (including peak timing) of ARI incidence as reported by users. This platform also allows for assessment and understanding of health-seeking behaviour for ARI, which is often limited in current surveillance platforms. This is not an alternative to traditional disease surveillance, but a complementary tool that supports active facility-based disease surveillance platforms by expanding the outreach to the community, including non-medically attended illness and providing an understanding of health-seeking.