Abstract:
The Public Health Emergency Management (PHEM) system is well established up to the health post
level. However, the existing surveillance system detects cases at health facility level when patients
seek treatment. There hasn`t been a strong surveillance system at community level; most outbreaks
are neither being promptly detected nor timely responded. Now adays, disease travel far and fast
which underscore the importance of robust surveillance system at community level. The concept and
practice of the Community and Event Based Surveillance (CEBS) are not new in the Ethiopian PHEM
system but, there were not guidelines that clearly spell out the implementation of CEBS in the country
despite such surveillance system play an indispensable role to improve early detection and
notification of any public health threat and events in the community.
