Abstract

On July 5, 2016, Amibera District Health office was alerted of excess of malaria cases in two villages. Within July 5 to 17, 2016 malaria outbreak and associations factors were investigated. A malaria case is when a person with fever or fever with headache is confirmed either microscopically to have Plasmodium parasites or by Rapid Diagnostic Test (RDT) to detect the malaria antigens. In the last five years malaria data were reviewed from 2011 to 2015 at the district level. Cases were identified by using line list and house to house active case search was done on a daily basis. Unmatched case-control study was conducted in 1:1 ratio conveniently selected cases (117) and community controls (117). The control was the neighbor of those who have not developed symptoms of malaria in the last three months. Data were collected through a structured interview administered questionnaire, entered into Epi-info version7  and analyzed using SPSS version 20. A total of 415 confirmed malaria cases with no death was identified. The predominant species was Plasmodium Falciparum accounting for 95.5%. The median age was 27 years (ranges 2- 63 years). The highest age specific attack rate was  above 15 years (63.7/1000 populations). Poor insecticide treated bed net utilization, absence of indoor residual spray, sleeping outside of their homes at nights and presence of stagnant water were factors associated with the disease contraction. In this study the current malaria outbreak was higher in magnitude than that of three years ago.

Key words: Amibera, malaria, outbreak, Plasmodium Falciparum.