Community-based measles mortality surveillance in two districts of Katanga Province, Democratic Republic of Congo

BMC Research Notes

Klaudia Porten²  Rebecca F Grais²  Matthew E Coldiron²  Ngoie Ilunga¹  Alexandra A N’Goran² 

[1]Ministry of Public Health, Epidemiologic Surveillance Division, Lumbashi, Democratic Republic of the Congo

[2]Epicentre, 8 rue Saint-Sabin, 75011 Paris, France

关键词: Democratic Republic of the Congo;    Population surveillance;    Measles;    Mortality;   

Others  :  1138252
DOI  :  10.1186/1756-0500-6-537

 received in 2012-12-23, accepted in 2013-12-10,  发布年份 2013

【 摘 要 】

Background

Mortality due to measles is often under-reported. Traditional methods of measuring mortality can be time and resource-intensive. We describe the implementation of a community-based method to monitor measles mortality.

Findings

Using standardized questionnaires in the midst of a measles outbreak, a community-based network of volunteers recorded a much larger number of deaths (376) than deaths recorded in health centres (27). Deaths were predominantly (93.5%) among children aged less than 5 years; 54.5% of measles deaths reported antecedent measles vaccination.

Conclusions

In this setting, the number of deaths due to measles reported in community-based surveillance was much higher than deaths reported in health centres. Lack of reliable population data and incomplete coverage of the surveillance system make it impossible to calculate overall attack rates and cause-specific mortality rates. Similar systems could be rapidly implemented in other difficult outbreak settings.

【 授权许可】

   
2013 N’Goran et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.

【 参考文献 】

• [1]Wolfson LJ, Grais RF, Luquero FJ, Birmingham ME, Strebel PM: Estimates of measles case fatality ratios: a comprehensive review of community-based studies. Int J Epidemiol 2009, 38:192-205.
• [2]Checchi F, Robert L: Documenting mortality in crises: what keeps us from doing better? PloS Med 2008, 5(7):e146.
• [3]Cairns K, Nandy R, Grais R: Challenges in measuring measles case fatality ratios in settings without vital registration. Emerg Themes Epidemiol 2010, 7:4. BioMed Central Full Text