College of Health Sciences

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Browsing College of Health Sciences by Subject ": Meningitis, outbreak, Ethiopia"

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    Ethiopia Field Epidemiology Training Program (EFETP) Compiled Body of Works in Field Epidemiology
    (Addis Abeba Universty, 2014-05) Megrssa, Elsabetee; Belachew, Ayele(PhD)
    Background: Ethiopia is within the meningitis belt and experiences local meningitis epidemics almost yearly. Most of the causes of meningococcal meningitis outbreak in the country is due to serogroup A. On 01 May 2013 Hababu Guduru District of Oromia region reported a suspected meningitis outbreak to the Federal Public Health Emergency Management Center. Investigated was launched to identify the etiological agent, risk factors and to implement control measures. Methods: A suspected case was defined as any person with a history of sudden onset of fever and one of the following signs neck stiffness, altered consciousness or other meningeal signs. A descriptive study was done than followed by an unmatched case-control study from 01-28 May 2013. A structured questionnaire was used to collect data from 57 cases and 57 controls. Controls were any person in the village without sign or symptoms of meningitis. Results: The descriptive study reviled a total of 244 suspected meningitis cases and two deaths (CFR= 0.8%). One hundred forty nine (61.1%) were female. The overall attack rate was 46/10,000 and the highest rate was among children aged 5-14 years (AOR=79/10,000). In the case control study, a multivariate analysis showed attendance in a public gathering area (AOR=3.3; 95% CI= 1.3-8.2), sharing a bedroom with more than two people (AOR=10.5; 95%CI=3.2-33.9) and living with a sick family member (AOR= 26.7; 95%CI=4.0-175.5) were associated with meningitis. There was no history of vaccination in the community for N. meningitidis. Eleven cerebro spinal fluid specimens(CSF) were collected, and nine were positive for Neisseria meningitidis W135 in a rapid latex agglutination test at district level. Of these seven CSF specimens were sent to National laboratory which were negative by culture. 2 Conclusion: A suspected meningococcal meningitis outbreak in Hababu Guduru district mainly affects females and age group 5-14 years. Overcrowding was significantly associated with the outbreak. Health education and increasing laboratory capacity for RT-PCR for better diagnostic capacity is recommended in the future. Key words: Meningitis, outbreak, Ethiopia