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Infectious disease surveillance during emergency relief to Bhutanese refugees in Nepal
A A Marfin1, J Moore, C Collins
1Division of Vector-Borne Infectious Diseases, National Center for Infectious Diseases, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Fort Collins, Colo.
Objective:
To implement simplified infectious disease surveillance and epidemic disease control during the relocation of Bhutanese refugees to Nepal.
Design:
Longitudinal observation study of mortality and morbidity.
Setting:
Refugee health units in six refugee camps housing 73,500 Bhutanese refugees in the eastern tropical lowland between Nepal and India.
Interventions:
Infectious disease surveillance and community-based programs to promote vitamin A supplementation, measles vaccination, oral rehydration therapy, and early use of antibiotics to treat acute respiratory infection.
Main Outcome Measures:
Crude mortality rate, mortality rate for children younger than 5 years, and cause-specific mortality.
Results:
Crude mortality rates up to 1.15 deaths per 10,000 persons per day were reported during the first 6 months of surveillance. The leading causes of death were measles, diarrhea, and acute respiratory infections. Surveillance data were used to institute changes in public health management including measles vaccination, vitamin A supplementation, and control programs for diarrhea and acute respiratory infections and to ensure rapid responses to cholera, Shigella dysentery, and meningoencephalitis. Within 4 months of establishing disease control interventions, crude mortality rates were reduced by 75% and were below emergency levels.
Conclusions:
Simple, sustainable disease surveillance in refugee populations is essential during emergency relief efforts. Data can be used to direct community-based public health interventions to control common infectious diseases and reduce high mortality rates among refugees while placing a minimal burden on health workers.