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Article History

Received: 9 August 2017

Accepted: 1 August 2018

First Online: 20 August 2018

Ethics approval and consent to participate

: The Ministry of Health of Uganda gave the directive and approval to investigate this outbreak. In agreement with the International Guidelines for Ethical Review of Epidemiological Studies by the Council for International Organizations of Medical Sciences (1991) and the Office of the Associate Director for Science, CDC/Uganda, determined that this activity was not human subjects research and its primary intent was public health practice or a disease control activity (specifically, epidemic or endemic disease control activity). Verbal informed consent was obtained from the participants before the start of each interview. For children less than 8 years, parental/legal guardian’s verbal informed consent was obtained on their behalf before start of each interview; for minors aged 8–18 years, verbal informed assent and parental/guardian’s informed verbal consent was obtained. For persons above 18 years, verbal informed consent was obtained before start of each interview. Verbal informed consent was obtained because it was impractical to obtained written consent as the affected community was illiterate and this investigation was conducted as part of an emergency outbreak investigation whose primary goal was to generate evidence to inform disease control as opposed to absolute human rights research. All participants were informed about the purpose and nature of the investigation and that their involvement was entirely voluntary; i.e. their refusal to answer any or all of the questions would not result in any negative consequences. Participants identified as patients were referred for free treatment at a nearby health facility. To protect participants’ confidentiality, personal information was de-identified during data analysis, and the interview forms were locked up.

: Not applicable.

: The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

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