What triggers dengue fever epidemics in red sea state, Sudan? A teaching case-study

Abstract

Dengue fever (dengue hemorrhagic fever) is a mosquito-borne disease. The disease is widespread throughout the tropics, with risk factors influenced by local spatial variations of rainfall, temperature, relative humidity, the degree of urbanization and quality of vector control services in urban areas. In the East Mediterranean Region, the disease was reported from Sudan, Yemen, and Pakistan in the past five years. During 2015-2018 many epidemics were detected, investigated and contained in Sudan. The recent epidemics in Sudan were devastating leading to many deaths and invading new areas. It is thus necessary to study triggering factors for the occurrence of dengue fever epidemics. This case study stimulates the students to analyse surveillance data, critically appraise epidemic report and to assess the epidemic contingency plan. The case study is designed for the training Novice field epidemiology trainees. The case study can be administered in 3-4 hours. Used as adjunct training material, the case study provides the trainees with competencies in analysing available data in order to identify triggering factors for dengue epidemics in Sudan and using this information to develop risk map using relevant software.