Mlomp HDSS

IRD, Senegal
Senegal
Population: 
8 200

Origins of the Mlomp Health and Demographic Surveillance System
The Mlomp Health and Demographic Surveillance System in Senegal was established in 1985 to study the demographic and health situation of a West African population with high mortality levels, to observe changes over time and to examine the factors involved.1 The rationale was the need for reliable demographic information concerning sub-Saharan Africa, in particular in rural areas for which very few data were available. When the Mlomp project started in 1985, Senegal already had two rural areas under long-term health and demographic surveillance: Niakhar, in the centre-west, where surveillance started in 1962,2 and Bandafassi, in the southeast, where surveillance started in 1970.3 The objective was to add a third HDSS in another rural area of Senegal, in a region whose historic, economic, and ethnic characteristics are very different from those of the two other sites, thus providing the opportunity to better cover the diversity of demographic and epidemiological situations in the country.