Sentinel surveillance of cholera for the host community as well as fragile population in two Upazilla’s of Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh

The prevention of cholera has become a high priority in the global community. Immunization with OCV is the most effective means of preventing cholera infection and it’s consequences. The World Health Organization (WHO) has warned of a growing risk of a cholera epidemic at the Rohingya camps in Bangladesh where people are sheltered in dire conditions. The camps do not have safe drinking water and lacked sufficient sanitation and hygiene; filthy water and faeces flowed openly through the camps. Risk of waterborne diseases is very high, especially there is increasing the risk of cholera in these camp. Over a million Forcibly Displaced Myanmar Nationals (FDMNs) have been residing in different camps of Ukhia and Teknaf, the two upazilla of Cox’s Bazar. Around the camps, the Bangladeshi host population are also living in close proximity to the FDMNs. The risk of cholera and other diarrhoeal diseases are similarly present for the host community and the fragile population. Moreover, according to WHO, a total number of 782 cases with 11 deaths have been reported in 2016 from Myanmer when the case fatality rate was 1.4%. Interventions like vaccination are being scaled-up as the situation remains critical and challenging. In addition, an impact evaluation of the effectiveness of the mass OCV campaigns carried out between October 2017 to December 2018 is ongoing. This has been carried out in 13 sites in Teknaf (n=2) and Ukhia (n=11). But information related to cholera burden among the FDMNs and host community is necessary to detect epidemics and outbreaks which will leverage cholera containment through vaccination and WASH activities. The objective of this study to carry out cholera surveillance at selected health facilities in Ukhiya and Teknaf Upazila, Cox’sbazar to gather information regarding cholera burden among fragile population (FDMN) and host community.