Design of a GSM Based Information System for Disease Outbreak Reporting

Abstract

The present method of reporting cases of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza via telephone hotline to NVRI has proven not to be as effective as required considering the need for timely reporting and response to outbreaks. In order to improve response time, accessibility, provide proper documentation of queries and reduce the financial burden on the average farmer, the researchers have taken advantage of the GSM network which has a coverage of over 46% (NCC¹ 2009) of the Nigerian population as at April, 2009 and has infrastructure which is not limited to the urban areas but has also permeated the rural areas to a reasonable extent. The aim of this project is to develop a system that can widen access to electronic databases by use of GSM phones. This would enable small scale rural farmers to have access to the Internet and online Nigerian databases. To achieve this purpose the researchers have created a gateway between the GSM and computer networks. They have also created an SMS message format which is able to interrogate the existing database. Visual Basic 6 was the main programming tool used in designing the system. Nokia PC Connectivity 3.0 SDK and Nokia PC Suite 7.1 were functional requirements for the system to be implemented. A Nokia 7210 Supernova handset was connected to the computer system via USB to serve as the Modem.