Outbreak of pertussis at community A in Dormaa Municipality, Ghana, August 2016

Pertussis is a vaccine preventable disease (VPD) monitored by the World Health Organization (WHO). Despite a long-established Pertussis immunization system, the re-emergence of the disease in some countries stressed the need to have well-trained field epidemiologists at the forefront in the fight against these VPDs, especially during an outbreak. Practical, hands-on training is useful for clearer understanding of the principles and development of competencies relevant to outbreak investigation, which will enhance field practice; case method training using realistic public health scenarios helps trainees put into practice learned theory. As such, this case study was adopted from a real Pertussis outbreak investigation that was conducted by Ghana’s Field Epidemiology Training Program residents, together with the rapid response team members of Dormaa Municipal health directorate in August 2016. It was primarily designed for training novice public health practitioners in a facilitated classroom setting. Participants should be able to complete the exercises in approximately 3 hours.