Data collection in the THiS web app is conducted by staff from registered tourist accommodations, using an online questionnaire administered to an unwell guest or staff member. Accommodations are also required to confirm the absence of cases by epidemiological week using a “zero case” submission on the web app page. Also, the self-reporting page allows visitors and staff to independently report their illness using an online questionnaire located on the THiS web page: THiS.carpha.org.
The online questionnaires are similar for reporting by registered facilities and self-reporting. The questionnaire includes 11 short questions that ask the user for necessary demographic information such as age and gender, potential exposure information such as recent travel and home country, and most importantly, which symptoms they are experiencing:
- diarrhoea (≥3 loose or watery stools in past 24 hours),
- vomiting and/or nausea,
- fever (sudden onset of fever >38.0◦C or 100.4◦C),
- cough or sore throat,
- bleeding (gums, nose, blood pooling under skin coughing, stool) not due to physical trauma
- headache,
- joint or muscle pains,
- eye pain/headache/facial pain,
- generalized rash,
- blurred vision or convulsions or altered consciousness.
Responses to these symptoms are analyzed in the system to generate (Figure 2) potential syndromes for each case:
- Gastroenteritis
- Undifferentiated Fever
- Fever & Haemorrhagic Symptoms
- Fever & Neurologic Symptoms
- Fever & Respiratory Symptoms
- Fever & Rash
Figure 2. The logic used to generate syndromes from reported symptoms (based on Case Definitions for Syndromes Under Regional Surveillance, CARPHA)