{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,14]],"date-time":"2026-08-14T00:03:11Z","timestamp":1786665791549,"version":"build-2736575974"},"reference-count":11,"publisher":"Public Library of Science (PLoS)","issue":"3","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2023,3,20]],"date-time":"2023-03-20T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1679270400000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["www.plosone.org"],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["PLoS ONE"],"abstract":"<jats:sec id=\"sec001\">\n<jats:title>Background<\/jats:title>\n<jats:p>The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends periodic evaluations of influenza surveillance systems to identify areas for improvement and provide evidence of data reliability for policymaking. However, data on the performance of established influenza surveillance systems are limited in Africa, including Tanzania. We aimed to assess the usefulness of the Influenza surveillance system in Tanzania and to ascertain if the system meets its objectives, including; estimating the burden of disease caused by the Influenza virus in Tanzania and identifying any circulating viral strains with pandemic potential.<\/jats:p>\n<\/jats:sec>\n<jats:sec id=\"sec002\">\n<jats:title>Methodology<\/jats:title>\n<jats:p>From March to April 2021, we collected retrospective data through a review of the Tanzania National Influenza Surveillance System electronic forms for 2019. Furthermore, we interviewed the surveillance personnel about the system\u2019s description and operating procedures. Case definition (ILI-Influenza Like Illness and SARI-Severe Acute Respiratory Illness), results, and demographic characteristics of each patient were obtained from the Laboratory Information System (Disa*Lab) at Tanzania National Influenza Center. The United States Centers for disease control and prevention updated guidelines for evaluating public health surveillance systems were used to evaluate the system\u2019s attributes. Additionally, the system\u2019s performance indicators (including turnaround time) were obtained by evaluating Surveillance system attributes, each being scored on a scale of 1 to 5 (very poor to excellent performance).<\/jats:p>\n<\/jats:sec>\n<jats:sec id=\"sec003\">\n<jats:title>Results<\/jats:title>\n<jats:p>A total of 1731 nasopharyngeal and oropharyngeal samples were collected from each suspected influenza case in 2019 from fourteen (14\/14) sentinel sites of the influenza surveillance system in Tanzania. Laboratory-confirmed cases were 21.5% (373\/1731) with a predictive value positive of 21.7%. The majority of patients (76.1%) tested positive for Influenza A. Thirty-seven percent of patients\u2019 results met the required turnaround time, and 40% of case-based forms were incompletely filled. Although the accuracy of the data was good (100%), the consistency of the data was below (77%) the established target of \u2265 95%.<\/jats:p>\n<\/jats:sec>\n<jats:sec id=\"sec004\">\n<jats:title>Conclusion<\/jats:title>\n<jats:p>The overall system performance was satisfactory in conforming with its objectives and generating accurate data, with an average performance of 100%. The system\u2019s complexity contributed to the reduced consistency of data from sentinel sites to the National Public Health Laboratory of Tanzania. Improvement in the use of the available data could be made to inform and promote preventive measures, especially among the most vulnerable population. Increasing sentinel sites would increase population coverage and the level of system representativeness.<\/jats:p>\n<\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.1371\/journal.pone.0283043","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2023,3,20]],"date-time":"2023-03-20T17:25:09Z","timestamp":1679333109000},"page":"e0283043","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1371\/journal.pone.corrections_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":9,"title":["Evaluation of the influenza-like illness sentinel surveillance system: A national perspective in Tanzania from January to December 2019"],"prefix":"10.1371","volume":"18","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-1939-2492","authenticated-orcid":true,"given":"Vulstan James","family":"Shedura","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-6674-7487","authenticated-orcid":true,"given":"Ally Kassim","family":"Hussein","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Salum Kassim","family":"Nyanga","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Doreen","family":"Kamori","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-4640-0486","authenticated-orcid":true,"given":"Geofrey Joseph","family":"Mchau","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"340","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2023,3,20]]},"reference":[{"key":"pone.0283043.ref001","first-page":"2","article-title":"Protocol for National Influenza Sentinel","author":"WHO Global Influenza Programme Surveillance and Epidemiology team","year":"2015","journal-title":"Isbn"},{"key":"pone.0283043.ref002","author":"WHO, \u201cWHO | Influenza (Seasonal)","year":"2013","journal-title":"Bulletin of the World Health Organization"},{"key":"pone.0283043.ref003","volume-title":"National Protocol for Influenza Sentinel Surveillance System","author":"World Health Organization","year":"2015","edition":"1"},{"issue":"suppl_1","key":"pone.0283043.ref004","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"S80","DOI":"10.1093\/infdis\/jis540","article-title":"Results from the First 30 Months of National Sentinel Surveillance for Influenza in Tanzania, 2008\u20132010","volume":"206","author":"V. M. Mmbaga","year":"2012","journal-title":"J. Infect. Dis."},{"issue":"1","key":"pone.0283043.ref005","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1","DOI":"10.1186\/s12889-019-8008-2","article-title":"Evaluation of the influenza sentinel surveillance system in the Democratic Republic of Congo, 2012\u20132015","volume":"19","author":"P. Babakazo","year":"2019","journal-title":"BMC Public Health"},{"issue":"3","key":"pone.0283043.ref006","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","DOI":"10.1371\/journal.pone.0120226","article-title":"Evaluation of two influenza surveillance systems in South Africa","volume":"10","author":"E. Budgell","year":"2015","journal-title":"PLoS One"},{"issue":"3","key":"pone.0283043.ref007","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"e0213627","DOI":"10.1371\/journal.pone.0213627","article-title":"Evaluation of the sentinel surveillance system for influenza-like illnesses in the Greater Accra region, Ghana, 2018","volume":"14","author":"F. S. Nuvey","year":"2019","journal-title":"PLoS One"},{"issue":"1","key":"pone.0283043.ref008","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1","DOI":"10.1186\/s12889-019-7035-3","article-title":"Evaluation of the influenza-like illness surveillance system in Tunisia, 2012\u20132015","volume":"19","author":"R. Yazidi","year":"2019","journal-title":"BMC Public Health"},{"issue":"3","key":"pone.0283043.ref009","first-page":"61","article-title":"Epidemiologic study of influenza infection in a developing country-experience in a tertiary care center in South East Nigeria","volume":"5","author":"P. O. Adogu","year":"2014","journal-title":"J. Med. Med. Sci."},{"issue":"2","key":"pone.0283043.ref010","article-title":"Draft framework for evaluating syndromic surveillance systems","volume":"80","author":"D. M. Sosin","year":"2003","journal-title":"J. Urban Health"},{"key":"pone.0283043.ref011","first-page":"375","article-title":"Lessons from the field Evaluation of the influenza sentinel surveillance system in Madagascar","volume":"95","author":"A. Rakotoarisoa","year":"2017","journal-title":"Bull World Heal. Organ"}],"container-title":["PLOS ONE"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/dx.plos.org\/10.1371\/journal.pone.0283043","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2023,3,20]],"date-time":"2023-03-20T17:25:32Z","timestamp":1679333132000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/dx.plos.org\/10.1371\/journal.pone.0283043"}},"subtitle":[],"editor":[{"given":"Clement Adebajo","family":"Meseko","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"editor"}]}],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2023,3,20]]},"references-count":11,"journal-issue":{"issue":"3","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2023,3,20]]}},"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1371\/journal.pone.0283043","relation":{},"ISSN":["1932-6203"],"issn-type":[{"value":"1932-6203","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2023,3,20]]}}}