Epidemiological Description of Chikungunya Virus Outbreak in Dire Dawa Administrative City, Western Ethiopia, 2019

Abstract

Chikungunya virus (CHIKV) is an arbovirus transmitted to humans by Aedes mosquitoes. It is one of the epidemic vector-borne diseases which has recently re-emerged, mainly in Asian and African continents and has led to a significant global public health problem in these countries. In Ethiopia the Chikungunia outbreak was reported from Dire Dawa Administrative City on July 2019. Therefore this paper is to document and highlight the epidemiology of chikungunia outbreak in Dire Dawa Administrative City. The Data was analyzed from line list collected by Regional Health Bureau from different public and private health sectors during the course of the outbreak, July 29, 2019 to October 20, 2019. Accordingly, the total of 41162 suspected cases of Chikungunia with 16 laboratory confirmed cases were reported from the City Administration. All of the suspected cases fulfill the standard case definition of Chikungunya. The outbreak starts at one kebeles and finally affected whole part of the city. The median age of the patient is 25 years. The overall attack rate of the outbreak was 12.3% with zero case fatality rate. The outbreak affected all age groups and both sexes. However, females are more affected than males with an attack rate of 12.32% and 6.19% for female and male respectively. Higher attack rate was reported from 15 to 44 age group (AR=50.35%). Fever (99.9%), headache (99.4%), joint pain (99.3%) and back pain (87.7%) are the major clinical symptoms observed during the outbreak.