Assessment Report of Surveillance System and Outbreak Investigation in Yello Health Center, Loma District: Case Study

Abstract

Surveillance is used for the application of health information for action under the following general set of conditions: in case of emergency situation, when timely response is demanded, needs public health epidemiologist must travel to & work in the field to solve the problem and when the extent of investigation is likely to be limited because of the imperative for timely intervention.The WHO-AFRO IDSR strategy focuses on the district level, but the goal of the IDSR strategy is to develop sufficient surveillance and response capacities at each level of the national system so that a flexible national infectious disease surveillance system will result. In a national adaptation of the strategy, a country might choose to focus initially on a few diseases depending on national resources and capacities.This study was done to assess the public health surveillance system and outbreak investigation in selected Yello Health Center, Loma District, South Ethiopia by using a cross sectional study was conducted from January 14-25 2/ 2012 in Yello Health Center.The data from different case team units in the health center is compiled but not analyzed by person, place and time dimensions. They perform trend analysis for malaria case only. They are using the information from statistics office to get denominator populationsSupervisors from woreda health office came to the health center three times in the past six months. The health center had made once supervision per month on the facilities under the health office i.e. health posts but no document was found about the supervision at all health posts.The health center has received written feedback from woreda health office but not from regional and supervisors. There is no standard case management protocol and contingency plan for epidemic prone diseases and possible outbreak in the health center. Activities conducted by health center on communicable disease prevention and control during the past 3 month includes Vitamin A supplementation, health education, malaria case management, ITN distribution and mass campaign like DDT spray. There is epidemic committee at the health center level. They are contributing to epidemic response activities by conducting case management, providing health education and immunization activities.Based on the assessment made, there is slightly alive surveillance system in the health center.The activities of IDSR system in health center are poor as it is evidenced by poor recording, analyzing, reporting, supervision and feedback. Therefore, a health center should create a link between laboratory and epidemiologic surveillance and need to increase the capacity to confirm cases and report to next higher level and reporting pattern of priority diseases need to be frequent and in line with the guideline. This works similarly for reporting to higher level and feedback to health posts.

Keywords: IDSR, outbreak, Yello, catchment area, Loma District