Introduction: Ethiopia is the main endemic focus of louse borne relapsing fever. Borrelia recurrentis is the etiologic agent for louse-borne relapsing fever and occurs as epidemic under conditions of poor socio economic status, overcrowding, poverty, draught and famine. Methods: Unmatched community based case control and descriptive cross sectional investigation were conducted. All patients from 15 October-15 November 2012 were included. Sixty eight patients matched with 136 controls that had no previous history of relapsing fever living in the same village. Study was conducted in in households with individuals who go to work on a daily basis and data was analyzed using Microsoft Excel and Epi-Info version 7.1.0.6.Results: Among all confirmed patients 100% (68), 92.6% (63), 94.1% (64) and 82.3% (56) presented with fever, head ache, chills and vomiting respectively. There was no death during the outbreak. Mean age of respondents was 21 years and their median age was 20 years (SD 7.14). Statistically significant associations were observed between 51 (75%) patients and 27.2% (37) controls who did wash their clothes at least weekly (AOR = 13.23, 95% CI [5.51-31.75]) and 79.4% (54) patients and 64% (87) controls who did not take body bath at least weakly (AOR = 8.01, 95%CI [3.51-18.29]) and the associations were statistically significant. Those not washing clothes and taking baths at least weekly had a 13 and 8 fold likelihood of acquiring relapsing fever compared to those who wash clothes and take baths respectively at least on a weekly basis. Conclusion: Poor personal hygiene was contributed to the outbreak. The outbreak was contained due to prompt interventions taken and strong preventive measures were recommended to prevent emergence of future outbreak of relapsing fever.
| Published in | Science Journal of Public Health (Volume 2, Issue 4) |
| DOI | 10.11648/j.sjph.20140204.16 |
| Page(s) | 284-287 |
| Creative Commons |
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited. |
| Copyright |
Copyright © The Author(s), 2024. Published by Science Publishing Group |
Borrelia recurrentis, Relapsing Fever, Bahir Dar, Ethiopia
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APA Style
Addisu Workineh Kassa, Amelework Getnet Alene, Tilahun Belete Mosie. (2014). Relapsing Fever Outbreak Investigation in Bahir-Dar, Amhara Region, Ethiopia. Science Journal of Public Health, 2(4), 284-287. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.sjph.20140204.16
ACS Style
Addisu Workineh Kassa; Amelework Getnet Alene; Tilahun Belete Mosie. Relapsing Fever Outbreak Investigation in Bahir-Dar, Amhara Region, Ethiopia. Sci. J. Public Health 2014, 2(4), 284-287. doi: 10.11648/j.sjph.20140204.16
AMA Style
Addisu Workineh Kassa, Amelework Getnet Alene, Tilahun Belete Mosie. Relapsing Fever Outbreak Investigation in Bahir-Dar, Amhara Region, Ethiopia. Sci J Public Health. 2014;2(4):284-287. doi: 10.11648/j.sjph.20140204.16
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Download@article{10.11648/j.sjph.20140204.16,
author = {Addisu Workineh Kassa and Amelework Getnet Alene and Tilahun Belete Mosie},
title = {Relapsing Fever Outbreak Investigation in Bahir-Dar, Amhara Region, Ethiopia},
journal = {Science Journal of Public Health},
volume = {2},
number = {4},
pages = {284-287},
doi = {10.11648/j.sjph.20140204.16},
url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.sjph.20140204.16},
eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.sjph.20140204.16},
abstract = {Introduction: Ethiopia is the main endemic focus of louse borne relapsing fever. Borrelia recurrentis is the etiologic agent for louse-borne relapsing fever and occurs as epidemic under conditions of poor socio economic status, overcrowding, poverty, draught and famine. Methods: Unmatched community based case control and descriptive cross sectional investigation were conducted. All patients from 15 October-15 November 2012 were included. Sixty eight patients matched with 136 controls that had no previous history of relapsing fever living in the same village. Study was conducted in in households with individuals who go to work on a daily basis and data was analyzed using Microsoft Excel and Epi-Info version 7.1.0.6.Results: Among all confirmed patients 100% (68), 92.6% (63), 94.1% (64) and 82.3% (56) presented with fever, head ache, chills and vomiting respectively. There was no death during the outbreak. Mean age of respondents was 21 years and their median age was 20 years (SD 7.14). Statistically significant associations were observed between 51 (75%) patients and 27.2% (37) controls who did wash their clothes at least weekly (AOR = 13.23, 95% CI [5.51-31.75]) and 79.4% (54) patients and 64% (87) controls who did not take body bath at least weakly (AOR = 8.01, 95%CI [3.51-18.29]) and the associations were statistically significant. Those not washing clothes and taking baths at least weekly had a 13 and 8 fold likelihood of acquiring relapsing fever compared to those who wash clothes and take baths respectively at least on a weekly basis. Conclusion: Poor personal hygiene was contributed to the outbreak. The outbreak was contained due to prompt interventions taken and strong preventive measures were recommended to prevent emergence of future outbreak of relapsing fever.},
year = {2014}
}
TY - JOUR T1 - Relapsing Fever Outbreak Investigation in Bahir-Dar, Amhara Region, Ethiopia AU - Addisu Workineh Kassa AU - Amelework Getnet Alene AU - Tilahun Belete Mosie Y1 - 2014/06/30 PY - 2014 N1 - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.sjph.20140204.16 DO - 10.11648/j.sjph.20140204.16 T2 - Science Journal of Public Health JF - Science Journal of Public Health JO - Science Journal of Public Health SP - 284 EP - 287 PB - Science Publishing Group SN - 2328-7950 UR - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.sjph.20140204.16 AB - Introduction: Ethiopia is the main endemic focus of louse borne relapsing fever. Borrelia recurrentis is the etiologic agent for louse-borne relapsing fever and occurs as epidemic under conditions of poor socio economic status, overcrowding, poverty, draught and famine. Methods: Unmatched community based case control and descriptive cross sectional investigation were conducted. All patients from 15 October-15 November 2012 were included. Sixty eight patients matched with 136 controls that had no previous history of relapsing fever living in the same village. Study was conducted in in households with individuals who go to work on a daily basis and data was analyzed using Microsoft Excel and Epi-Info version 7.1.0.6.Results: Among all confirmed patients 100% (68), 92.6% (63), 94.1% (64) and 82.3% (56) presented with fever, head ache, chills and vomiting respectively. There was no death during the outbreak. Mean age of respondents was 21 years and their median age was 20 years (SD 7.14). Statistically significant associations were observed between 51 (75%) patients and 27.2% (37) controls who did wash their clothes at least weekly (AOR = 13.23, 95% CI [5.51-31.75]) and 79.4% (54) patients and 64% (87) controls who did not take body bath at least weakly (AOR = 8.01, 95%CI [3.51-18.29]) and the associations were statistically significant. Those not washing clothes and taking baths at least weekly had a 13 and 8 fold likelihood of acquiring relapsing fever compared to those who wash clothes and take baths respectively at least on a weekly basis. Conclusion: Poor personal hygiene was contributed to the outbreak. The outbreak was contained due to prompt interventions taken and strong preventive measures were recommended to prevent emergence of future outbreak of relapsing fever. VL - 2 IS - 4 ER -
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