Case Study: Ministry of Health of the State of Yucatan achieves real-time epidemic tracking and faster outbreak response with BlackBerry

Mexican State Health Ministry Uses BlackBerry Solution to Help Control and Monitor Infectious Diseases

The Ministry of Health of the State of Yucatán, which operates 136 health centers and 23 mobile units across a large and economically diverse region, faced a critical challenge during the 2009 H1N1 outbreak: its manual, paper-based surveillance process could take up to seven days to reach central offices, hampering rapid detection and containment at key entry points such as airports, seaports, roads and bus terminals.

To address this, the ministry deployed Cytron’s Vigilancia Epidemiológica app on BlackBerry smartphones to collect GPS‑tagged questionnaires from frontline staff. More than 8,000 records were captured and displayed on a central dashboard, enabling near real‑time mapping, three‑day follow-ups, and immediate deployment of medical teams to confirmed cases. The solution significantly improved response times, case tracking and resource allocation, lowered operating costs, and is adaptable for future epidemics.

Ministry of Health of the State of Yucatan

Dr. Julio Alfonso Góngora Escobedo

Planning Director to the Ministry