COMPILED BODY OF WORKS IN FIELD EPIDEMIOLOGY

Abstract

Back ground: Measles is highly contagious; the attack rate in a susceptible individual exposed to measles is 90 percent. The period of contagiousness is estimated to be from five days before the appearance of rash to four days afterward. In Ethiopia in 2014 there were 119 outbreaks with a total of 16,159(2,373 IgM confirmed and 13,786 Epi-linked) measles cases. In West Hararge zone outbreak occurred in 2019 in 10 woredas and 1town with a total of 1515 suspected cases (23laboratory confirmed and the rest 1,492 cases were epi-linkage). Twenty percent of zonal cases occurred in Boke woreda and as a zone measles outbreak occurred repeatedly. Therefore the aim of this study is to assess the magnitude and risk factors of measles cases in Boke woreda, West Hararge zone. Methods: We used unmatched case-control study. Cases were identified from woreda Health center records and defined as persons presenting to Health center cough, runny nose fever and rash all over the body without other known cause during October 20-27, 2019.controls were well household contacts of cases. We interviewed case-patients and controls about Vaccination status, Housing condition and food history. We evaluated for factors associated with illness in Statistical Package for Social Science version 20. Results: A total of 304 measles cases were reported from 20/10/2019 to 7/01/2020 from Boke District. The overall attack rate of the disease per 1000 population was 2.1 and the CFR was zero in this District. Of the total 304 cases, 156(51.2%) were females and 148(48.8%) were males. Out of 304 cases, 17 (9.9%) of them were admitted with measles complications such as pneumonia, diarrhea and otitis media. Based on the case-control finding: being unvaccinated for measles OR=0.116, 95% CI (0.054, 0.251), and contact to measles patient at neighbor, school and other places OR= 2.888, 95% CI (1.569, 6.893) were significantly associated with the outbreak. Conclusion: Poor vaccine cold chain management system was the main contributing factor for the occurrence of the outbreak. This due to Absence of functional refrigerator in all kebeles of the District may alter vaccine potency given at these kebeles, therefore the District health office should strengthen measles routine immunization activities with strongly managing vaccine cold chain through filling any identified gaps.