This study piloted an event-based surveillance system at the health centre (HC) level in Ethiopia. The system collects rumours in the community and registers them in rumour logbooks to record events of disease outbreaks and public health emergencies. Descriptive analysis was conducted on the events captured at the 59 study HCs in the Amhara Region in north-western Ethiopia between October 2013 and November 2014. A total of 126 rumours were registered at two thirds of the HCs during the study period. The average event reporting time was 3.8 days; response time of the HCs was 0.6 days, resulting in a total response time of 4.4 days. The most commonly reported rumours were measles-related (n = 90, 71%). These rumours followed a similar pattern of measles cases reported in the routine surveillance system. The largest proportion of rumours were reported by community members (n = 38, 36%) followed by health post workers (n = 36, 29%) who were normally informed by the community members about the rumours. This surveillance system was established along with an existing indicator-based surveillance system and was simple to implement. The implementation cost was minimal, requiring only printing and distribution of rumour logbooks to the HCs and brief orientations to focal persons. In countries where routine surveillance is still weak, an event-based surveillance system similar to this should be considered as a supplementary tool for disease monitoring.

BackgroundIn the Amhara Region of Ethiopia, a steep decline of malaria cases was seen in early 2014. This study verified the decrease of the malaria cases along with the positivity rates among acute febrile illness patients, from late 2012 through 2014 in selected districts of the Amhara Region of Federal Republic of Ethiopia.MethodsDescriptive epidemiological analysis was conducted on the routine malaria surveillance data from the World Health Organization epidemiological week 28 of 2012 to week 52 of 2014 in three districts: Burie Zuria, Dembia and Mecha, the Amhara Region in Ethiopia. The authors visited the three district health offices, and health centres, when necessary, and collected the surveillance data on malaria for that period.ResultsThe study found that the malaria cases, along with the positivity rates, decreased from late 2012 to early 2014 in all three districts. Though the situation had slightly reverted in late 2014, the numbers of cases were much smaller than in late 2012 in all three districts. Despite the different diagnostic techniques used at health centres (malaria microscopy) and health posts (rapid diagnostic tests), moderate to high correlations were found, suggesting that the trends were real and not caused by a defect in the reagent, differences in the technicians’ skills for microscopy, or a change of the health workers’ attitudes toward cases with acute febrile illness. The decrease in malaria cases in early 2014 may have resulted from successful implementation of the three pillars of malaria control—case management, indoor residual spraying and insecticide-treated nets—in the districts where a high percentage of households were protected by indoor residual spraying and/or insecticide-treated nets.ConclusionWhile the current efforts for malaria control should be strengthened and maintained, the review of malaria surveillance data should also be used to verify the malaria trend in the region.