Infectious disease surveillance for generating early warnings to enable a prompt response during mass gatherings has long been a challenge in India as well as in other parts of the world. Ujjain, Madhya Pradesh in Central India hosted one of the largest religious festival in the world called ‘Simhasth kumbh mela’ on the banks of River Kshipra, where more than 50 million attendees came for holy dip during April 22 to May 21, 2016. The attendees included pilgrims (residents and visitors), observers, officials and volunteers. We developed an android application with automated summary reports and an interactive dashboard for syndromic surveillance during the gathering.

Objective:

To develop, test and study tablet-based participatory syndromic surveillance system for common infectious disease conditions at community level in Simhashta religious mass gathering in Ujjain, India, 2016.