Early Detection and Surveillance of Infectious Disease Outbreaks in Nigeria  : Integrating Nigerian Pidgin English (NPE) into the EPIWATCH^® Platform.

ABSTRACT: This study aimed to integrate Nigerian Pidgin English (NPE) into the Artificial Intelligence system EPIWATCH^®, with the aim of providing early detection and enhanced surveillance of infectious disease outbreaks in Nigeria. The widespread use of NPE as a lingua franca, spoken by over 75 million people in Africa, improves interaction and communication within communities across Nigeria. Key search terms were translated into NPE and incorporated into EPIWATCH^® for surveillance. Using publicly available outbreak reports collected by EPIWATCH^® from Nigeria between 2018 and 2023, we conducted a descriptive analysis to compare outbreak detection patterns before and after the integration of NPE into the system. We observed a 315% increase in EPIWATCH^® out

SUBMITTER: Kolawole O 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12901078 | biostudies-literature | 2026 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature