An investigation of pyrexia of unknown origin in Shamva District, Zimbabwe, September 2015

An investigation of pyrexia of unknown origin in Shamva District, Zimbabwe, September 2015

Daniel Chirundu^1,2,&, Tsitsi Juru², Nsiande Lema³, Rayyan Muhammad Garba⁴, Joseph Asamoah Frimpong⁵

 

¹Kadoma City Health Department, Kadoma, Zimbabwe, ²Zimbabwe Field Epidemiology Training Program, Harare, Zimbabwe, ³Tanzania Field Epidemiology Training program, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, ⁴Nigeria Field Epidemiology Training program, Abuja, Nigeria, ⁵African Field Epidemiology Network, Accra, Ghana

 

 

^&Corresponding author
Daniel Chirundu, Kadoma City Health Department, Kadoma, Zimbabwe

 

 

 

 

General instructions: ideally, 1 to 2 facilitator(s) is/are required to facilitate the case study for 10 to 20 participants. The facilitator should request participants to read a paragraph out loud, going around the room to give each participant a chance to read. When the participant reads a question, the facilitator encourages all participants to engage in discussions, perform calculations, and draw graphs among other tasks. The facilitators request the participants to play different roles or take different sides in answering a question. As a result, participants learn from each other, not just from the facilitators.

 

Audience: Field Epidemiologist and other person(s) interested in the case study.

 

Pre-requisite: before using this case study, case study participants should have received lectures or other instruction in outbreak investigation, use of Epi info 7 visual dashboard to run aberration algorithm, study design, measures of association, and policy formulation and analysis.

 

Materials needed: flipchart or whiteboard with markers.

 

Level of training: advanced outbreak investigation.

 

Time required: approximately 2 hours

 

Language: English

 

 

• Download the case study student guide (PDF - 928 KB)
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The authors declare no competing interests.

 

 

The African Field Epidemiology Network and Emory University are acknowledged for organising a case study development workshop through which this output was achieved. We acknowledge the Zimbabwe Field Epidemiology Program for allowing us to use their data for this case study. We acknowledge the following for peer review during the case study development: Tuya Nakale, Emmanuel Hikufe, Wilson Rubanzana, Mark Obonyo, Lazarus, Alice Manjate, Senesia Sitao, Hussein Muhammed, Joseph Ntaganira, Junaidu, Yusuf, Mikayla Farr, Desta Hiko, Herbert Brian Kazoora, Maley Mcleod, Yusuf Oyindamola, Junaid Kabir, Casey Daniel, Sorie Dumbuya, Evelyn Kamgang, Calbeth Alaribe, Ghada Farhat and Richard Dicker.

 

 

1. Central Statistics office. Mashonaland Central Census Report. Govt Printers. 2012. Google Scholar


2. World Health Organisation. Guideline for Drinking Water Quality. WHO. 1997; 2nd Edition. Google Scholar


3. Samuel J Cobbina, Abudu B Duwiejuah, Reginald Quansah, Samuel Obiri, Noel Bakobie. Comparative assessment of heavy metals in drinking water sources in two small-scale mining communities in Northern Ghana. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2015 Sep; 12(9): 10620-10634. PubMed | Google Scholar


4. Tapesana S Chirundu D, Gombe TN, Shambira G, Juru TP, Tshimanga M. An acute gastroenteritis outbreak investigation at two informal gold mine settlements, Kadoma Zimbabwe. 2016. In press submitted to BMC Public Health Journal.