Background: The influenza virus spreads rapidly around the world in seasonal epidemics, resulting in significant morbidity and mortality. Influenza-related incidence data are limited in many countries in Africa despite established sentinel surveillance. This study aimed to address the information gap by estimating the burden and seasonality of medically attended influenza like illness in Ethiopia. Method: Influenza sentinel surveillance data collected from 3 influenza like illness (ILI) and 5 Severe Acute Respiratory Illness (SARI) sites from 2012 to 2017 was used for analysis. Descriptive statistics were applied for simple analysis. The proportion of medically attended influenza positive cases and incidence rate of ILI was determined using total admitted patients and catchment area population. Seasonality was estimated based on weekly trend of ILI and predicted threshold was done by applying the "Moving Epidemic Method (MEM)". Result: A total of 5715 medically attended influenza suspected patients who fulfills ILI and SARI case definition (77% ILI and 23% SARI) was enrolled. Laboratory confirmed influenza virus (influenza positive case) among ILI and SARI suspected case was 25% (1130/4426) and 3% (36/1289). Of which, 65% were influenza type A. The predominantly circulating influenza subtype were seasonal influenza A(H3N2) (n = 455, 60%) and Influenza A(H1N1)pdm09 (n = 293, 38.81%). The estimated mean annual influenza positive case proportion and ILI incidence rate was 160.04 and 52.48 per 100,000 population. The Incidence rate of ILI was higher in the age group of 15-44 years of age ['Incidence rate (R) = 254.6 per 100,000 population', 95% CI; 173.65, 335.55] and 5-14 years of age [R = 49.5, CI 95%; 31.47, 130.43]. The seasonality of influenza has two peak seasons; in a period from October-December and from April-June. Conclusion: Significant morbidity of influenza like illness was observed with two peak seasons of the year and seasonal influenza A (H3N2) remains the predominantly circulating influenza subtype. Further study need to be considered to identify potential risks and improving the surveillance system to continue early detection and monitoring of circulating influenza virus in the country has paramount importance.

Background: The avian influenza virus has different subtypes which have the potential to cause disease in animals and humans. Human cases with influenza A (H5N1), A (H5N6) and A (H7N9) viruses, have been reported to WHO and various influenza A (H5) subtypes continue to be detected in birds globally. Little is known about the types of exposure that result in human infections. In Ethiopia, risk assessment studies were not conducted and the awareness of the community and the risk of exposure for potential avian influenza is undetermined. The aim off this survey is to assess the level of the community awareness and the risk for human exposure to avian influenza viruses (HPAI) in the wet land areas of Ethiopia. Method: The survey was conducted from January 26 to February 28, 2018 in the wet land areas of Ethiopia by using a standard questionnaire and purposive random sampling method. Epi info version 7.0 and SPSS (V.20) were applied for data analysis. Result: Off the total 200 respondents 94.7% don’t know about the mode of transmission and 43.5%, 27%, 16.9% of the respondents believed that HAI it transmitted by inhalation of air droplet (breathing), contact with ill person and eating raw poultry meat and egg products. 36.2% of respondents believed that Human avian influenza is preventable by keeping hand hygiene, followed by respiratory hygiene (28%) and environmental hygiene (19.3%). However, 68.6% had close contact with animals (poultry) and high exposure to raw animal products. Conclusion: The awareness level of the community in the mode of transmission, risk factors and preventive measures is very low while the exposure for infected birds, food products remaining high. Further risk assessment studies and community awareness creation on the prevention and control of highly pathogenic avian influenza is recommended. Key words: Avian Influenza, Exposure, Ethiopia

Background: The avian influenza virus has different subtypes which have the potential to cause disease in animals and humans. Human cases with influenza A (H5N1), A (H5N6) and A(H7N9) viruses, have been reported to WHO and various influenza A(H5) subtypes continue to be detected in birds globally. Little is known about the types of exposure that result in human infections. In Ethiopia, risk assessment studies were not conducted and the awareness of the community and the risk of exposure for potential avian influenza is undetermined. The aim off this survey is to assess the level of the community awareness and the risk for human exposure to avian influenza viruses (HPAI) in the wet land areas of Ethiopia. Method: The survey was conducted from February - April 2018 in the wet land areas of Ethiopia by using a standard questionnaire and purposive random sampling method. Epi info version 7.0 and SPSS (V.20) were applied for data analysis. Result: Of the total 200 respondents 94.7% don’t know about the mode of transmission and 43.5%, 27%, 16.9% of the respondents believed that HAI it transmitted by inhalation of air droplet (breathing), contact with ill person and eating raw poultry meat and egg products.36.2% of respondents believed that Human avian influenza is preventable by keeping hand hygiene, followed by respiratory hygiene (28%) and environmental hygiene (19.3%). However, 68.6% had close contact with animals (poultry) and high exposure to raw animal products. Conclusion: The awareness level of the community in the mode of transmission, risk factors and preventive measures is very low while the exposure for infected birds, food products remaining high. Further risk assessment studies and community awareness creation on the prevention and control of highly pathogenic avian influenza is recommended. Key words: Avian Influenza, Exposure, Ethiopia