Cholera outbreak in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia: A case-control study.

BACKGROUND: Cholera remains a significant public health problem in more than one-third of the countries of the world. Cholera outbreak has become more common in Addis Ababa particularly in the rainy seasons; however, there is a paucity of data on risk factors associated with cholera outbreaks rendering interventions difficult. We investigated the outbreak to identify its etiology, source, risk factors and in order to control the outbreak. METHODS: We compared cases with health center-based unmatched controls (1:2). Cases were patients aged ≥5 years with acute watery diarrhea, with or without vomiting while controls were persons aged ≥5 years without history of acute watery diarrhea. We interviewed our study participants using structured questionnaire to collect demographic and cholera risk factors data. We described the outbreak over time, and then tested our hypotheses using unconditional logistic regression. RESULTS: The outbreak began on 7 September, 2017 reaching its peak on 23 September, 2017 and ended on 01 October, 2017. We identified a total of 25 cases (Median age: 38 years; IQR: 20 years) and recruited 50 controls (Median age: 35 years; IQR: 29 years). All case-patients had acute watery diarrhea and dehydration requiring intravenous fluids. All cases were admitted to cholera treatment center but there were no deaths. Stool and water samples yielded isolates of Vibrio cholerae O1 of serological subtype Ogawa. Consumption of contaminated holy water (AOR: 20.5, 95%CI: 3.50, 119.61) and raw vegetables (AOR: 15.3, 95%CI: 3, 81.51) were independent risk factors whereas washing hands with soap after visiting latrine (AOR: 0.04, 95%CI: 0.01, 0.25) was independent protective factor. CONCLUSION: Our findings demonstrated cholera foodborne transmission via consumption of raw vegetables, and its waterborne transmission via consumption of contaminated holy water. Washing hands with soap after visiting latrine was protective. We recommended cooking of vegetables and promoting hand washing.

Rubella outbreak in the school children, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia: February-April 2018.

BACKGROUND: Rubella is a vaccine-preventable contagious disease causing an estimated 100,000 children to be born with congenital rubella syndrome each year globally. Studies documented that 18 rubella outbreaks were occurred each year in Ethiopia. Yeka sub-city woreda 13 public health emergency management office reported two measles suspected cases on 8 February, 2018. We investigated this outbreak to identify its etiology, describe the outbreak and implement control measures. METHODS: We described the outbreak using descriptive epidemiology. The study population was defined as students learning in the school where the outbreak occurred. Suspected rubella case was defined as student with generalized rash whereas confirmed case was suspected case tested positive for rubella IgM. Questionnaires, checklists and students record review were used to collect data. We searched for new cases in classes daily and excluded them from classes. The school environment was assessed and the outbreak was described in person and time. RESULTS: We identified 58 cases (median age: 4.6 years; IQR: 4-5 years) with six of them rubella IgM positive and 52 epidemiologically linked. The outbreak began on 8 February 2018 having multiple intermittent peaks during its course reaching its highest peak at 2 April, 2018 and ended on 20 April, 2018. Index cases were reported from two classes; however, cases were occurred in 13/15(86.67%) of the classes during the entire outbreak. Fifty five percent (32/58) and 45/58(77.59%) of the cases were females and 3-5 years children, respectively. Overall attack rate was 58/531(4.05%). Attack rate was higher in females 32/252 (12.7%) than in males 26/279 (9.32%), and higher 45/275(16.36%) in 3-5 years than those in 5-8 years 13/256(5.08%) children. Case fatality ratio was zero. All cases were vaccinated against measles but unvaccinated against rubella. CONCLUSIONS: Attack rate was higher in females than in males and higher in 3-5 years than 5-8 years children. We recommended establishing rubella surveillance system, conducting sero-prevalence of rubella among child bearing age females and establishing CRS surveillance among young infants to provide evidence-based information for RCV introduction. It was also recommended to develop a national rubella surveillance guideline which aid to exclude rubella cases from schools during outbreak.