Infectious Diseases & Tropical Medicine

Structured notes for malaria, typhoid, Lassa fever and TB clinics

A documentation profile designed around febrile illness in endemic settings — RDT and microscopy results, parasite density, treatment day counts, contact tracing and notifiable-disease flags, captured while you examine the patient.

Most ambient scribes were designed for temperate outpatient medicine, where an undifferentiated fever is a minor diagnostic puzzle. In much of Africa, South Asia and Latin America the febrile patient is the core of the clinic day, and the documentation demands are entirely different. A single encounter may need a malaria rapid diagnostic test result with parasite species and density, a typhoid differential with blood-culture caveats, a viral haemorrhagic fever risk screen with exposure and travel history, and a tuberculosis treatment day count with directly observed therapy status. Each of those carries a public-health obligation as well as a clinical one: Lassa fever, cholera, measles, meningitis, yellow fever and TB are notifiable in most endemic countries, and the note is the source document for that report. ScribeMDPro ships a dedicated Infectious Diseases and Tropical Medicine profile that treats these as first-class fields rather than free text buried in a narrative. It records what test was done and what it showed, keeps drug regimens with dose, weight band and day-of-therapy intact, preserves exposure and contact history verbatim, and surfaces a notification prompt when the working diagnosis is a reportable condition. Every draft remains a draft until a clinician reviews and signs it.

Documentation challenges we solve

  • Undifferentiated fever needs a documented differential — malaria, typhoid, arbovirus, VHF, sepsis — not a single guess
  • Rapid test, microscopy and GeneXpert results are frequently reduced to 'positive' with no species, density or specimen detail
  • Anti-malarials, anti-TB regimens and typhoid antibiotics are weight-banded and day-counted, and errors in either are clinically serious
  • Notifiable conditions such as Lassa fever, cholera and TB require an accurate source note for surveillance reporting
  • Exposure, travel and contact history is the diagnostic key in outbreak settings and is the first thing lost when notes are written from memory hours later

What clinicians gain

  • Febrile-illness template with an explicit differential and pertinent negatives for VHF danger signs
  • Diagnostic results captured with modality, specimen, species and density — RDT, thick/thin film, GeneXpert, blood culture
  • Anti-malarial, anti-TB and typhoid regimens preserved with drug, dose, weight band, duration and day-of-therapy
  • Contact tracing and exposure history captured as structured lines you can hand to the surveillance officer
  • Notifiable-disease prompt when the assessment names a reportable condition under IDSR or national guidance

How it works

  1. Step 1
    Start ambient capture

    Open ScribeMDPro before the infectious diseases and tropical medicine encounter and start recording — the patient never has to talk to a device.

  2. Step 2
    Focus on the patient

    Conduct your normal history and exam. Take the fever history, exposure history and examination as you normally would — including in Yoruba, Hausa, Igbo, Swahili, French or Portuguese.

  3. Step 3
    Auto-drafted note

    A structured SOAP note appears seconds after the visit ends, formatted for your specialty.

  4. Step 4
    Review, sign, export

    Edit inline, copy to your EMR, download as PDF, or push through supported integrations.

Example SOAP output

S: 28yo F, 4 days of fever with chills, headache and generalised body pains. No travel outside state. No contact with a person who bled, no rodent contact in the home. Took unprescribed paracetamol.
O: T 39.2 C, HR 108, BP 106/68, RR 20, SpO2 98%. Mildly pale conjunctivae, no jaundice, no bleeding from gums or puncture sites, no rash. Spleen not palpable. mRDT positive for P. falciparum HRP2. Thick film: P. falciparum, 12,000 parasites/uL. PCV 31%. Blood culture sent.
A: Uncomplicated Plasmodium falciparum malaria in a non-pregnant adult, with mild anaemia. Enteric fever remains a differential pending blood culture; no VHF danger signs and no epidemiological exposure elicited.
P: Artemether-lumefantrine 80/480 mg twice daily for 3 days, first dose observed with fatty food. Paracetamol 1 g 6-hourly PRN. Oral fluids and haematinics. Return immediately for repeated vomiting, confusion, dark urine, bleeding or inability to drink. Review in 72 hours; if still febrile, treat as suspected enteric fever pending culture and re-screen for VHF exposure.

Illustrative only. Clinicians retain final responsibility for the record.

Frequently asked questions

Which tropical conditions does this profile cover?

It is tuned for malaria, enteric (typhoid) fever, tuberculosis, Lassa and other viral haemorrhagic fevers, cholera and acute watery diarrhoea, meningitis, measles, dengue and chikungunya, schistosomiasis and soil-transmitted helminths, and HIV with its opportunistic infections.

Does it record parasite density and species?

Yes. When you say the microscopy or RDT result aloud, the note keeps the modality, the species and the density — for example 'thick film: P. falciparum, 12,000 parasites/uL' — rather than collapsing it to 'malaria positive'.

Does it flag notifiable diseases?

When the assessment names a condition reportable under IDSR or national guidance, the plan carries an explicit notification line. The clinician still makes the report; ScribeMDPro makes sure the source note supports it.

Will it work if the consultation is in Yoruba, Hausa or Swahili?

Yes. Transcription stays in the language spoken, dialect adapters handle local phrasing for fever, body pains and abdominal pain, and the structured note is drafted in clinical English. Translating the transcript itself is a separate action you choose.

Can it be used for TB treatment monitoring visits?

Yes. Monthly DOTS reviews capture regimen phase, month of therapy, weight, adherence, sputum conversion status and adverse effects such as hepatotoxicity or visual changes on ethambutol.

Related pages

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