COVID-19 in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina: Strengthening the public health surveillance using a web-based system to inform public health response, March 2020 - March 2022

Sanjin Musa; Mia Blažević; Ariana Kavazović; Jasmin  Durmišević; Siniša Skočibušić

doi:10.17305/bb.2022.8050

Authors

Sanjin Musa Institute for Public Health of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina; Sarajevo School of Science and Technology, Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7611-2162
Mia Blažević Institute for Public Health of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina
Ariana Kavazović Institute for Public Health of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina
Jasmin Durmišević Institute for Health and Food Safety Zenica, Zenica, Bosnia and Herzegovina
Siniša Skočibušić Institute for Public Health of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina; Faculty of Medicine, University of Mostar, Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.17305/bb.2022.8050

Keywords:

Coronavirus disease (COVID-19), surveillance, response measures, Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (FBiH), Bosnia and Herzegovina

Abstract

In response to the significant public health threat caused by coronavirus disease (COVID-19), real-time surveillance, containment, and mitigation measures were implemented in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (FBiH). Our objective was to describe the surveillance methodology, response measures, and epidemiology of COVID-19 cases in FBiH from March 2020 to March 2022. The surveillance system implemented across FBiH enabled health authorities and the population to monitor the development of the epidemiological situation, the daily number of reported cases, as well as basic epidemiological characteristics and geographic distribution of cases. As of 31 March 2022, 249,495 cases of COVID-19, and a total of 8,845 deaths were recorded in FBiH. Upkeeping of real-time surveillance, maintaining non-pharmaceutical interventions, and speeding up the vaccination roll-out were paramount for controlling COVID-19 in FBiH.