WHO News

First confirmed case of Monkeypox in Sweden WHO kallar till akut möte om spridning av apkoppor “Världshälsoorganisationen WHO kallar till ett akut möte efter fallen med apkoppor. Det skriver The Telegraph. Frågor som WHO väntas diskutera på mötet är den ovanligt höga förekomsten hos homo- och bisexuella män samt vaccinationssituationen, skriver norska Dagbladet. Under fredagen har fall av apkoppor upptäckts i Frankrike, Tyskland och Belgien. Det första fallet i Sverige registrerades under torsdagen. I Kanada, Storbritannien och Portugal har flera fall upptäckts. Apkoppor påminner om smittkoppor, men är mildare.” Quote from …

On 18 February 2021, the National IHR Focal Point for the Russian Federation notified WHO of detection of avian influenza A(H5N8) in seven human clinical specimens. These are the first reported detection of avian influenza A(H5N8) in humans. Positive clinical specimens were collected from poultry farm workers who participated in a response operation to contain an avian influenza A(H5N8) outbreak detected in a poultry farm in Astrakhan Oblast in the Russian Federation. The laboratory confirmation of the seven specimens were performed by the State Research Centre for Virology and Biotechnology VECTOR (WHO H5 Reference Laboratory). The age of seven positive cases ranged betw…

On 14 February 2021, the Ministry of Health (MoH) of Guinea informed WHO of a cluster of Ebola Virus View the full article

Rift Valley fever (RVF) has been reported in Kenya in humans in Isiolo and Mandera counties and in View the full article

On 7 February 2021, the Minister of Health of the Democratic Republic of the Congo declared an outbreak of Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) after the laboratory confirmation of one case in Butembo, North Kivu Province. The case was a 42-year-old female living in Masoya Health Area, Biena Health Zone. She was a spouse of an EVD survivor, who has been followed up and whose biological samples have tested negative since 28 September 2020. On 25 January 2021, the case presented with nasal bleeding. From 25 January to 1 February, she reportedly received outpatient care in Ngubi health center. From 1 to 3 February, she was admitted to Masoya health center with signs of physical weak…

On 13 January, 2021, a child under 18 years of age in Wisconsin developed respiratory disease. A respiratory specimen was collected on 14 January. Real-time reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) testing conducted at the Wisconsin State Laboratory of Hygiene indicated a presumptive positive influenza A(H3N2) variant virus infection. The specimen was forwarded to the Influenza Division of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on 21 January for further testing. On 22 January, CDC confirmed an influenza A (H3N2)v virus infection using RT-PCR and genome sequence analysis. Investigation into the source of the infection has been completed and re…

Between 1 June through 31 December 2020, the National IHR Focal Point of Saudi Arabia reported four additional cases of Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS-CoV) with one associated death. The cases were reported from Riyadh (two cases), Taif (one case), and Al-Ahsaa (one case) Regions. The link below provides details of the four reported cases. View the full article

On 15 December 2020, the Brazil Ministry of Health reported the second confirmed human infection with influenza A(H1N2) variant virus [A(H1N2)v] in Brazil in 2020. View the full article

From 11 November to 28 December, 2020 a total of 67 suspected cholera cases presenting with diarrhea and vomiting, including two deaths a case fatality ratio (CFR: 3%) were reported from the municipalities “Golfe 1” and “Golfe 6” in Lomé, Togo. A total of four health areas (Katanga, Adakpamé, Gbétsogbé in Golfe 1, and Kangnikopé in Golfe 6) in the affected municipalities reported at least one case. On 17 November, cholera was confirmed by culture in the laboratory of the National Institute of Hygiene (INH) in Lomé, Togo and WHO was informed. On 19 November, the Minister of Health, Public Hygiene and Universal Access to Care of Togo issued a press release declaring a cho…

SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, has had a major impact on human health globally; infecting a large number of people; causing severe disease and associated long-term health sequelae; resulting in death and excess mortality, especially among older and vulnerable populations; interrupting routine healthcare services; disruptions to travel, trade, education and many other societal functions; and more broadly having a negative impact on peoples physical and mental health. Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, WHO has received several reports of unusual public health events possibly due to variants of SARS-CoV-2. WHO routinely assesses if variants of SARS-CoV-2 …

From October to December 2020, a total of seven confirmed cases of yellow fever (YF) have been reported from four health districts in three regions in Senegal. View the full article

Between 6 November and 15 December 2020, 52 suspected cases of yellow fever (YF), including 14 View the full article

On 14 December 2020, authorities of the United Kingdom (UK) reported to WHO that a new SARS-CoV-2 variant was identified through viral genomic sequencing. This variant is referred to as SARS-CoV-2 VUI 202012/01 (Variant Under Investigation, year 2020, month 12, variant 01). View the full article

Since June 2020, Danish authorities have reported an extensive spread of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, on mink farms in Denmark. View the full article

Between 8 September and 24 November, 2020, the North-Central region of Burkina Faso reported a View the full article

Reports of a cluster of deaths from an undiagnosed disease were notified on 1 November 2020 through Event Based Surveillance in two states, Delta and Enugu, located in southern Nigeria. View the full article

On 18 November 2020, the Minister of Health of the Democratic Republic of the Congo declared the end of the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) outbreak in Equateur Province. View the full article

The Ministry of Health in Lao People's Democratic Republic (PDR) reported a human case of infection with an avian influenza A(H5N1) virus. The case is a one-year-old female who developed symptoms of fever, productive cough, difficulty breathing and runny nose on 13 October 2020. She was hospitalized for her illness on 16 October and discharged on 19 October. As part of severe acute respiratory infection (SARI) sentinel surveillance, a specimen was collected on the date of hospitalization and confirmed to be positive for avian influenza A(H5N1) on 28 October by reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) at the National Centre for Laboratory and Epidemiology (…

The Ministry of Health (MoH) notified WHO that between 13 September and 1 October 2020, eight cases of Rift Valley Fever (RVF) including seven deaths were confirmed in animal breeders. Districts affected include Tidjikja and Moudjéria (Tagant region), Guerou (Assaba region) and Chinguetty (Adrar region). Laboratory confirmation of RVF infection was performed using a reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) at the National Institute for Public Health Research (INRSP) in Nouakchott. The age of infected patients varied between 16 and 70 years old and included one woman and seven men. All seven deaths occurred among hospitalised patients with fever and haemorr…

Since June 2020, 214 human cases of COVID-19 have been identified in Denmark with SARS-CoV-2 variants associated with farmed minks, including 12 cases with a unique variant, reported on 5 November. View the full article

On 13 October 2020, the French health authorities officially reported 13 laboratory-confirmed cases of Mayaro fever in French Guiana, France. In September 2020, the Institut Pasteur de la Guyane (IPG) (member of the French National Reference Laboratory for arboviruses) identified two cases of Mayaro virus infection (MAYV) confirmed by reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and one probable case found positive for Mayaro antibodies. The case-patients presented dengue-like symptoms and joint pains, and tested negative for dengue by RT-PCR. View the full article

On 30 September 2020, the French Guiana Regional Health Agency (ARS) reported the first detection of Oropouche virus (OROV) in French Guiana. On 22 September 2020 the Pasteur Institute in Cayenne (a member of the French National Reference Laboratory for arboviruses) notified the France IHR National Focal Point of seven laboratory-confirmed cases of Oropouche virus infection in the village of Saül. These cases were identified following clinical investigations of an unusually high number of dengue-like illnesses in the village. Between 11 August and 25 September, there were 37 clinically-compatible cases of Oropouche virus disease identified in Saül. The results of serology…

From 1 January through 13 September 2020, a total of 4,594 suspected cases of monkeypox, including 171 deaths (case fatality ratio 3.7%), have been reported in 127 health zones from 17 out of 26 provinces in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The first epidemic peak was observed at the beginning of March 2020 (epi week 10), with 136 cases reported weekly (Figure1). From 1 January through 7 August, the Institut National de Recherche Biomédicale (INRB) received 80 samples from suspected cases of monkeypox, of which 39 samples were confirmed positive by polymerase chain reaction. Four out of the 80 specimens were skin lesions (crusts/vesicles), the remaining samples were…

On 28 August 2020, the National IHR Focal Point of Chad notified WHO of an outbreak of chikungunya in Abéché, eastern Chad. View the full article

Three months after the declaration of the eleventh Ebola virus disease (EVD) outbreak in Equateur Province, Democratic Republic of the Congo, the number of confirmed cases continues to increase, and the geographic spread of the outbreak continues to expand. As of 1 September 2020, 110 cases (104 confirmed and six probable) including 47 deaths (case fatality ratio 43%) have been reported from 36 health areas in 11 health zones. In the past 21 days (12 August – 1 September 2020), 24 confirmed cases have been reported in 15 health areas across eight health zones. To date, three healthcare workers have been affected, making up 3% of all cases. In addition, 48 people have re…