After Action Review Qualitative research on Yellow Fever outbreak Coordination, Surveillance & Reponses in Wolaita Zone of SNNPR Region, Ethiopia

Abstract Background: Coordinating outbreak investigations requires effective interagency communication. Important tasks include making the initial notifications, establishing roles and responsibilities for each jurisdiction, providing updates on the progress of the investigations, revising priorities for the investigation, and establishing the next steps. The major goal of surveillance activities is to identify and eliminate preventable causes of morbidity and mortality. 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 Objective: To review lessons learned 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 : Among the main findings of the review is the weakness of the surveillance to detect case; the surveillance system was not that much effective for early detection of viral hemorrhagic fevers and there was knowledge gap to detect in the existing. The Review found out further that preparedness plan was weak, failing to consider the outbreak for VRAM. 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: Based on the major findings, it may be concluded that the surveillance system was weak to detect yellow fever outbreak occurrence in Wolaita Zone. A major gap is therefore the inability to include the case to the IDSR weekly report. Once the case was confirmed, the response to the crisis was fairly commendable. 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 Key terms: After Action Review; Outbreak Response; Yellow Fever, Surveillance, Coordination,