Investigation of a haemorrhagic disease with unknown origin in Kyrandia, 2005: a teaching case-study
Nassma Mohy Eldeen Altayeb, Andrey Kuznetsov, Wessam Mankoula, Erasmus Gidimadjor, Mageda Kihulya, Barbara Buerkin, Dina Ramadan Lithy
Corresponding author: Nassma Mohy Eldeen Altayeb, Federal Ministry of Health, Khartoum,Osman digna street with Nile avenue PO Box 303 Zip code 1111, Sudan 
Received: 03 Jul 2020 - Accepted: 29 Jul 2020 - Published: 05 Aug 2020
Domain: Infectious diseases epidemiology
Keywords: Haemorrhagic disease, outbreak, Kyrandia
This article is published as part of the supplement Teaching case-studies in Field Epidemiology with a focus on the Eastern Mediterranean Region, commissioned by The Eastern Mediterranean Public Health Network (EMPHNET).
©Nassma Mohy Eldeen Altayeb 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: Nassma Mohy Eldeen Altayeb et al. Investigation of a haemorrhagic disease with unknown origin in Kyrandia, 2005: a teaching case-study. Pan African Medical Journal. 2020;36(1):12. [doi: 10.11604/pamj.supp.2020.36.1.24778]
Available online at: https://www.panafrican-med-journal.com//content/series/36/1/12/full
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Investigation of a haemorrhagic disease with unknown origin in Kyrandia, 2005: a teaching case-study
Investigation of a haemorrhagic disease with unknown origin in Kyrandia, 2005: a teaching case-study
Nassma Mohy Eldeen Altayeb1,&, Andrey Kuznetsov2, Wessam Mankoula3, Erasmus Gidimadjor4, Mageda Kihulya5, Dina Ramadan Lithy6, Barbara Maria Buerkin7,8
&Corresponding author
A number of diseases are classified as haemorrhagic disease and differences between them relate to etiologic factors, being infectious or non-infectious, geographic distribution, incidence, reservoir, transmission method, and clinical symptoms. In Kyrandia, cases of a human haemorrhagic disease have been reported since 1940, yet recently, the reported cases have been increasing in number due to several factors. In October 2005, the Ministry of Health (MOH) reported fatal laboratory-confirmed cases in the State of Shanta in Kyrandia, where a total of 605 cases of outbreak-related illness were reported during that period.
The goal of this case study is to build the capacity of trainees to investigate haemorrhagic disease outbreaks of an unknown origin. This case study is based on real events with some fictitious elements. Details from the original outbreak investigation have been modified to enhance the learning objectives and support the instructional goals. This case study aims to stimulate students to identify the source of a disease outbreak, analyse surveillance data, eliminate the outbreak, and develop strategies to prevent future outbreaks. The case study also aims at training students to evaluate existing prevention strategies, describe newly emerging infections, learn more about known diseases, and appropriately address public concern. This case study is designed for the training of basic level field epidemiology trainees or any other health care workers working in public health-related fields. The case study can be administered in 2-3 hours. Used as adjunct training material, the case study provides the trainees with competencies in analysing available data in order to identify triggering factors for viral haemorrhagic disease outbreak.
General instructions: this case study should be used as adjunct training material for novice epidemiology trainees to reinforce the concepts taught in prior lectures. The case study is ideally taught by a facilitator in groups of about 20 participants. Participants are to take turns reading the case study, usually a paragraph per student. The facilitator guides the discussion on possible responses to questions. The facilitator may make use of flip charts to illustrate certain points. Additional instructor´s notes for facilitation are coupled with each question in the instructor´s guide to aid facilitation.
Audience: This case study was developed for novice field epidemiology students. These participants are commonly health care workers working in the county departments of health whose background may be as medical doctors, nurses, environmental health officers or laboratory scientists who work in public health-related fields. Most have a health science or biology background.
Prerequisites: before using this case study, participants should have received lectures on disease surveillance and outbreak investigation.
Materials needed: Flash drive, flip charts, markers, calculators, computers with MS Excel, Annex 2 of the International Health Regulations 2005.
Level of training and associated public health activity: Novice - Outbreak Investigation
Time required: 2-3 hours
Language: English
- Download the case study student guide (PDF - 604 KB)
- Request the case study facilitator guide
The authors declare no competing interests.
We wish to acknowledge the Global Partnership Initiated Academia for Controlling Health Threats (GIBACHT) and the Eastern Mediterranean Public Health Network (EMPHNET) for their support in developing this case study.
Annex 1: the triple package layers (figure provided by IATA, Montreal, Canada)
Annex 2: International Health Regulations IHR (2005)
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