Investigating a foodborne illness outbreak at a private girls’ school in Mashonaland East Province, Zimbabwe, 2015

Globally, it is estimated that foodborne-associated illness accounts for 2.2 million deaths. This is caused by contamination of food with toxins, parasites, bacteria or viruses that can lead to increased levels of morbidity and mortality. Although steps to conducting an outbreak investigation have been outlined in most epidemiology textbooks, identifying the causative agent for a foodborne illness outbreak can be complex based on the setting. In view of that, this case study was developed based on a foodborne illness outbreak at agirls’ boarding school to model the steps of an investigation. This case study will reinforce skills and theoretical knowledge attained by public health trainees, to be able to build competences in foodborne outbreak investigation. The target audiences are intermediate and advanced public health trainees. Estimated time of facilitation is 3 hours with a class size of 10- 20 students.