Outbreak investigation of an unknown gastrointestinal illness in District Victoria, Country Mala, 2016
Muhammad Asif Syed, Nigus Abebe Shumuye, Maria Anyorikeya, Nurbolot Usenbaev, Eva Mertens, Hedia Bellali, Elizeus Rutebemberwa
Corresponding author: Eva Mertens, Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine, Department of Infectious Disease Epidemiology, Bernhard-Nocht-Strasse 74, 20359 Hamburg, Germany 
Received: 03 Aug 2021 - Accepted: 09 Oct 2021 - Published: 15 Dec 2021
Domain: Health communication,Infectious diseases epidemiology,Public health
Keywords: Case study, biosafety, biosecurity, outbreak investigation, epidemiology, risk communication, surveillance
This article is published as part of the supplement Case studies on the management of public health events in Africa, Central Asia, South Asia, and the Middle East – the GIBACHT approach, commissioned by Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine, Bernhard-Nocht-Straße 74, 20539, Hamburg, Germany.
©Muhammad Asif Syed 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: Muhammad Asif Syed et al. Outbreak investigation of an unknown gastrointestinal illness in District Victoria, Country Mala, 2016. Pan African Medical Journal. 2021;40(2):1. [doi: 10.11604/pamj.supp.2021.40.2.30992]
Available online at: https://www.panafrican-med-journal.com/content/series/40/2/1/full
Case study 
Outbreak investigation of an unknown gastrointestinal illness in District Victoria, Country Mala, 2016
Outbreak investigation of an unknown gastrointestinal illness in District Victoria, Country Mala, 2016
Muhammad Asif Syed1, 
Nigus Abebe Shumuye2,3, Maria Anyorikeya4, Nurbolot Usenbaev5, Eva Mertens6,7,&, Hedia Bellali8,9, Elizeus Rutebemberwa10,11,12
&Corresponding author
This case study is based on an outbreak investigation conducted by multisectoral team from animal and public health offices in Kaktong (a remote village in Zhemgang District Bhutan) during July-September 2010. This outbreak caused by ingestion of infected cow meat which had died after a brief illness (bleeding of unclotted blood from nostrils). The owner of the affected cow had opened the carcass and dressed the meat, which he shared or sold within the village for human consumption. It simulates an epidemiological investigation including active and passive case finding, descriptive and analytical epidemiology, laboratory confirmation, risk communication with implementation of control measures. This case study is designed for the training of front-line public health professional, basic, intermediate and advanced level field epidemiology trainees. The case study will build the capacity of the trainees regarding investigating illnesses caused by animal-human interface.
General instructions: this case study is an added resource for students of epidemiology and public health with specialised knowledge who need further information on the outbreak investigation with management and risk communication. The case study is ideally conducted in groups of about 10-20 participants under supervision of facilitator. Each student will participate in the case study by reading the paragraph on his/her turns. The facilitator will be responsible for engaging students in discussion, clarifying any confusing concepts or data analysis, and encouraging participants to think about the answers of the given questions. Notes for facilitator are coupled with each question in the facilitator version of case study with objective to aid facilitation.
Target audience: this case study was designed for public health professional (medical doctors, nurses, environmental health officers or laboratory scientists etc.) and trainees of field epidemiology (frontline, intermediate and advance level)
Prerequisites: before using this case study, participants should have background knowledge on Anthrax (natural history of disease), public health surveillance and outbreak investigation.
Time required: Approximately 3.5 hours
Language: English
- Download the case study student guide (PDF - 550 KB)
- Request the case study facilitator guide: contact info@gibacht.org
The authors declare no competing in interests.
We wish to acknowledge the Global Partnership Initiated Academia for Controlling Health Threats (GIBACHT) and their funding body, the German Federal Foreign Office, for their support in developing this case study.
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