Dengue fever, also known as “Breakbone Fever,” is an infectious disease that can be deadly. In 2013, Lao PDR experienced an unprecedented dengue fever epidemic, infecting nearly 50,000 people in every province in the country.

Alarmingly, approximately 70 percent of the 92 deaths reported in 2013 were children under the age of 15. By detecting dengue fever outbreaks, earlier health experts and communities can take precautionary measures and decrease or eliminate the public health dangers of dengue fever.

To address this issue, the third EpiHack took place in Vientiane, Laos in June 2014 and was co-hosted by the Laos Ministry of Health, Mekong Basin Disease Surveillance (MBDS) Network, Skoll Global Threats Fund, InSTEDD iLab Southeast Asia, and Opendream in an effort to develop a participatory reporting tool to detect dengue fever outbreaks.

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Credit note: Nathalie Sajda for providing EpiHack Laos information

Larvae Survey Tools by InSTEDD iLab Southeast Asia, EpiHack Laos 2014

The Larvae Survey Tools in Laos project seeks District Health Office officials in the Vientiane Capital to enter paper reporting received from the village level into a digital reporting tool. The project resulted from EpiHack Laos.