Unexplained Haemorrhagic Fever in Rural Ethiopia
Zegeye Hailemariam, Doreen Tuhebwe, Meeyoung Mattie Park, Casey Daniel Hall
Corresponding author: Zegeye Hailemariam, Ethiopia Field Epidemiology Training Program, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Received: 19 Apr 2017 - Accepted: 05 May 2017 - Published: 28 May 2017
Domain: Epidemiology,Haematology,Clinical laboratory sciences
Keywords: Public health, epidemiology, Ethiopia, haemorrhagic fever, outbreak investigation
This article is published as part of the supplement African Case Studies in Public Heath, commissioned by Emory University, African Field Epidemiology Network (AFENET).
©Zegeye Hailemariam et al. Pan African Medical Journal (ISSN: 1937-8688). This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution International 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Cite this article: Zegeye Hailemariam et al. Unexplained Haemorrhagic Fever in Rural Ethiopia. Pan African Medical Journal. 2017;27(1):3. [doi: 10.11604/pamj.supp.2017.27.1.12567]
Available online at: https://www.panafrican-med-journal.com//content/series/27/1/3/full
Unexplained haemorrhagic fever in Rural Ethiopia
Zegeye Hailemariam1,&, Doreen Tuhebwe2, Meeyoung Mattie Park3, Casey Daniel Hall3
1Ethiopia Field Epidemiology Training Program, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 2Uganda Field Epidemiology Training Program, Kampala, Uganda, 3Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University, Atlanta, USA
&Corresponding author
Zegeye Hailemariam, Ethiopia Field Epidemiology Training Program, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
This case study was written based on events of an outbreak investigation of an unfamiliar disease in Ethiopia during October–December 2012. Ethiopia did not have reports of similar cases in the 50 years prior to this outbreak. In this case study, we recapitulate and analyse this outbreak investigation based on data gathered from the community, health facility, and laboratory systems. It can be used to teach: 1) the outbreak investigation process; 2) selection of appropriate epidemiological design for the investigation process, 3) basic statistical analysis of surveillance data, and 4) principals of disease control. The target audiences for this case study are officials working in public health and public health trainees. It will take at most 3.5 hours to complete this case study. At the end of the case study, participants should be able to apply the principals of outbreak investigation and use surveillance data to respond to an outbreak in their country-specific context.
General instructions: to conduct this case study in the classroom, the authors propose that the participant’s guide be distributed one part at a time. Background material, including the appendices, should be distributed before the case study for review by the participants. Participants should take turns reading the narrative aloud, paragraph by paragraph. Reading all paragraphs aloud and in turns has two advantages: first, everyone is given an opportunity to participate and get beyond the inhibition of having her/his voice heard in a large room; second, the whole class is given time to understand the issue and think about the answers. The participants reading the question may try to answer it if s/he can; otherwise, it can be discussed as a group or completed as an exercise as the instructor’s notes dictate. Instructor’s notes are included in the instructor’s guide for each question. Complete all reading and questions before the next part is distributed. Then the next participant continues and so on until the case study is over. Once the conclusion is read, re-visit the learning objectives – this reinforces the learning and provides an opportunity to clarify any remaining issues.
Audience: officials working at the National Surveillance Department, Ministry of Health, Regional Surveillance Office, District Surveillance Office, District Head of Heath Department, and FETP/ Public Health trainees.
Prerequisites: before using this case study, participants should have received lectures in outbreak investigation, application of epidemiological study designs, and Integrated Disease Surveillance & Response guidelines and have experience or be currently working in a health-related field, or contributing to the government health surveillance functions.
Materials needed: white board or flip chart and marker
Level of training and associated public health activity: intermediate – outbreak investigation
Time required: approximately 3.5 hours
Language: English
The authors declare no competing interest.
This case study is based on an investigation conducted in 2013 by the Ethiopian Federal Ministry of Health in collaboration with the Ethiopian Public Health Institute, Addis Ababa. This case study was developed by Zegeye Hailemariam (zegeyehailemariam@yahoo.com) and Doreen Tuhebwe (tuhereen@yahoo.com) in 2015 for the Ethiopia and Uganda FETPs, with review and input from Kelly Fletcher, Meeyoung Park, Casey D. Hall, and Scott McNabb of Emory University. We also wish to acknowledge the following for their peer review during the case study development workshop: Mahmood Dalhat, Olufunmilayo Fawole, Jane Githuku, Notion Gombe, and Gerald Shambira.
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