Qualitative Research on Yellow Fever Outbreak Responses in Wolaita Zone of SNNPR Region, Ethiopia

Background: Outbreak response basically entails preparedness which helps to establish arrangements in advance to enable timely, effective and appropriate responses to specific potential hazardous events or emerging disaster situations that might threaten society/environment. Researches about outbreak response or interventions that focus on post-incident communication have recently been published in a range of disciplinary journals, from organizational psychology to organizational communication one reason that the interventions are successful is because it provides team with a common time and place for purposeful discussion-based learning. Objective: To review outbreak response from the October 2018 Wolayta Zone yellow fever outbreak management in SNNPR, Ethiopia. Methods: Qualitative research approach, with Thematic Analysis. Purposive sampling method was used. Data were collected through FGDs, in-depth interviews, observation and document reviews. Results: However, it is worth-noting that the Review showed that despite late detection, a rapid response team was set up and was able to save the lives of many during the outbreak. The findings further showed there was good coordination among various stakeholders at different levels and with satisfying sharing of roles and responsibilities. Conclusion: The case was detected lately after one month of since the first case were detected and all case which admitted this period were miss-diagnosed of the cases and leading to some deaths. Even though there was a confusion on identifying the first case, after the confirmation of the first case, the case management went as per the standard guideline and SOPs, helping save so many lives through availing the service free of charge.