The trend of measles in Afghanistan
Homeira Nishat, Iqbal Aman, Farahnaz Ibrahimi, Ajmal Zahed, Yousef Khader, Malak A Shaheen
Corresponding author: Homeira Nishat, Afghanistan National Public Health Institute (ANPHI)/MOPH, Afghanistan 
Received: 12 Mar 2019 - Accepted: 08 May 2019 - Published: 15 May 2019
Domain: Infectious diseases epidemiology
Keywords: Measles, outbreak, 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).
©Homeira Nishat 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: Homeira Nishat et al. The trend of measles in Afghanistan. Pan African Medical Journal. 2019;33(1):7. [doi: 10.11604/pamj.supp.2019.33.1.18660]
Available online at: https://www.panafrican-med-journal.com/content/series/33/1/7/full
Supplement 
The trend of measles in Afghanistan
The trend of measles in Afghanistan
Homeira Nishat1,&, Iqbal Aman1, Farahnaz Ibrahimi1, Ajmal Zahed1, Yousef Khader2, Malak A Shaheen3
1Afghanistan National Public Health Institute (ANPHI)/MOPH, Afghanistan, 2Jordan University of Science and Technology, Jordan, 3Ain Shams University, Egypt
&Corresponding author
Homeira Nishat, Afghanistan National Public Health Institute (ANPHI)/MOPH, Afghanistan
Measles is a highly contagious disease-prone vaccine-preventable disease characterized by a maculopapular rash. It continues to be a common and sometimes fatal disease in developing countries. In Afghanistan, it causes many outbreaks in areas with low vaccine coverage. Measles itself is one of the leading causes of death among young children, even though a safe and cost-effective vaccine is available. In July 2018, the Ministry of Public Health reported 198 outbreaks and 6654 confirmed measles cases. The cause of the increasing number of outbreaks and cases is low immunization coverage and poor public health services. This case study helps to teach students to analyze surveillance data, critically appraise epidemic report and assess the epidemic contingency plan. It is designed for the training of basic level field epidemiology trainees or any other health care workers working in outbreaks of measles and other public health-related fields. It can be administered in 2-3 hours.
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
Level of training and associated public health activity: Novice - public health surveillance
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. We also acknowledge surveillance system and Ministry of public Health, Afghanistan for allowing us to use the data for this case study.
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Measles Vaccination. Accessed on 24 March 2019.
- Moss WJ. Measles. Lancet. 2017 Dec 2;390(10111):2490-2502. PubMed
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