Epidemiological profile of Crimean Congo Hemorrhagic Fever (CCHF) in Afghanistan: a teaching-case study
Wahida Amini, Mohmmad Iqbal Aman, Yousef Khader, Malik Shaheen
Corresponding author: Wahida Amini, Afghanistan National Public Health Institute, Ministry of Public Health, Kabul, Afghanistan 
Received: 16 Mar 2019 - Accepted: 08 May 2019 - Published: 15 May 2019
Domain: Infectious diseases epidemiology
Keywords: Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever, epidemiology, Afghanistan
This article is published as part of the supplement Case Studies for Public Health in the Eastern Mediterranean Region - 2019, commissioned by Yousef S Khader (yskhader@just.edu.jo).
©Wahida Amini et al. Pan African Medical Journal (ISSN: 1937-8688). This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution International 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Cite this article: Wahida Amini et al. Epidemiological profile of Crimean Congo Hemorrhagic Fever (CCHF) in Afghanistan: a teaching-case study. Pan African Medical Journal. 2019;33(1):6. [doi: 10.11604/pamj.supp.2019.33.1.18684]
Available online at: https://www.panafrican-med-journal.com/content/series/33/1/6/full
Supplement 
Epidemiological profile of Crimean Congo Hemorrhagic Fever (CCHF) in Afghanistan: a teaching-case study
Epidemiological profile of Crimean Congo Hemorrhagic Fever (CCHF) in Afghanistan: a teaching-case study
Wahida Amini1,&, Mohammad Iqbal Aman2, Yousef Khader3, Malik Shaheen4
1Afghanistan National Public Health Institute, Ministry of Public Health, Kabul, Afghanistan, 2Afghanistan Medical council, Afghanistan, 3Jordan University of Science and Technology, Jordan, 4Ain Shams University, Egypt
&Corresponding author
Wahida Amini, Afghanistan National Public Health Institute, Ministry of Public Health, Kabul, Afghanistan
Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever (CCHF) is a vector-borne hemorrhagic disease caused by a primarily zoonotic virus infecting a wide range of domestic and wild animals. The main implicated vectors are Hyalomma spp. ticks. Transmission of the virus to humans occurs through tick bites, crushing of infected ticks, contact with blood, body fluids, and tissue of patients with CCHF during the acute phase of illness; and contact with blood or tissue of viremic livestock. Afghanistan health officials have reported an increase in CCHF cases in 2017. In 2017, a total of 237 cases of CCHF including 41 deaths (CFR: 17.2%) have been reported throughout 27 provinces. Majority of these cases-71 cases (nearly 30%) including 13 associated deaths (CFR: 18.3%), were reported from the capital city, Kabul. This case study simulates an epidemic investigation including laboratory confirmation, active case finding, descriptive epidemiology and implementation of control measures. This case study is designed for the training of basic level field epidemiology trainees or any other health care workers working with CCHF and other public health-related fields. It can be administered in 2-3 hours. Used as adjunct training material, the case study provides the trainees with competencies in assessing the epidemiological profile of CCHF.
General instructions: this case study should be used as adjunct training material for novice epidemiology trainees to reinforce the concepts taught in prior lectures. The case study is ideally taught by a facilitator in groups of about 20 participants. Participants are to take turns reading the case study, usually a paragraph per student. The facilitator guides the discussion on possible responses to questions. The facilitator may make use of flip charts to illustrate certain points. Additional instructor´s notes for facilitation are coupled with each question in the instructor´s guide to aid facilitation.
Audience: this case study was developed for novice field epidemiology students. These participants are commonly health care workers working in the county departments of health whose background may be as medical doctors, nurses, environmental health officers or laboratory scientists who work in public health-related fields. Most have a health science or biology background.
Prerequisites: before using this case study, participants should have received lectures on disease surveillance and outbreak investigation.
Materials needed: Flash drive, flip charts, markers, computers with MS Excel
Time required: 2-3 hours
Language: English
- Download the case study student guide
- Request the case study facilitator guide
The authors declare no competing interests.
Authors would like to acknowledge The Eastern Mediterranean Public Health Network (EMPHNET) for their technical support.
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- Atif M, Saqib A, Ikram R, Sarwar MR, Scahill S. The reasons why Pakistan might be at high risk of Crimean Congohaemorrhagic fever epidemic; a scoping review of the literature. Virol J. 2017 Mar 23;14(1):63. PubMed | Google Scholar
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