Abstract

Surveillance data claimed the presence of a diarrhoea outbreak after a flash flood swept off some villages of Mahmood Raqi district in Kapisa province. The water sources were treated with chlorine to stop the outbreak, but still no significant decrease in the incidence of diarrhoeal cases was observed. A case control study was conducted to find the risk factors of diarrhoea in the affected villages, of which approximately 5000 people are living in the affected villages of Mahmood Raghi district of Kapisa province. This study randomly selected 50 cases and 50 control families and applied a structured questionnaire. The control was defined as families that did not have any diarrhoea case in the two weeks prior to the study. The study was conducted on 8 and 9 of August, 2010. In the case families, 93 out of 161 (58%) children of ages under five and 51/451 (11.3%) people of ages over five years complained of diarrhoea.  Average family size was 12 and 9.6 among case and control families. Average numbers of children under 5 years were 3.22 and 2 in the case and control families, respectively. Dug well was the main source of drinking water in 32% of the cases and 18% controls. The researchers found that hand washing with clean water and soap after using the toilet and before feeding the children was strongly protective in the controls, odd ratio (OR) = 0.03 (P=0.0000) (uncorrected chi square = 44.1 (P=0.000) and 0.15 (P=0.00072)), respectively. Covering the water pots for kitchen use was strongly protective against diarrhoea (OR=0.06, P=0.000). Education of mother was another protecting factor for children, average years of mothers education was 0.45 year in the cases and 3.1 years in the controls. Poor hand washing practices, improper water storage in the households and types of latrine were associated with the outbreak of diarrhoea. Level of parents’ education is the key for prevention and control of diarrhoea in <5 years children. Health education session was conducted to control diarrhoea outbreak in the affected villages.

Key words: Risk factors of diarrhoea, outbreak of diarrhoea, case control study, Afghanistan, DEWS.