Kersa HDSS

Haramaya University
Ethiopia
Population: 
129 200

Kersa Health and Demographic Surveillance System (Kersa HDSS) is located in Kersa district of eastern Hararege zone of Oromia region, Eastern Ethiopia. It was established in 2007 to track demographic and health changes in the community and to be aplat forma for various health related research by the college of Health and Medical Sciences in Haramaya University. It has a vision to become a center of excellence in health science research in Ethiopia.

The HDSS does monitoring demographic events such as birth, death, marital status change and migration; and health related conditions such as pregnancy, immunization, and morbidity among children and adults. It also conducts verbal autopsy for the deceased to identify the causes of death in the population. Other areas of interest of the HDSS are environmental health, reproductive health, nutrition, HIV/AIDS and health-care seeking and use.

The sex ratio and number of persons per household were 1.0 and 5.1, respectively. The annual net population growth is 1.6. The majority of the populations in Kersa are not within the working age group; hence the dependency ratio below 1. In different years, the total fertility rate ranges from 4.0 to 5.3. The neonatal and under five mortality are 27 and 77 per 1000 live births respectively. Tuberculosis is the leading cause of death among adults and malnutrition is the leading cause of death among children aged under 5 years.