WHO News

The Ministry of Health (MoH), WHO and partners continue to respond to the ongoing Ebola virus disease (EVD) outbreak in one of the most complex settings possible. A high number of cases are still being reported, most notably from the metropolitan areas of Katwa Health Zone during the past week. The decline in case incidence has continued in Beni; a positive indication of how effective the response can be despite multiple challenges. Trends in the number of new cases occurring (Figure 1) reflect the continuation of the outbreak across a number of geographically dispersed areas. During the last 21 days (26 December 2018 through 15 January 2019), 79 new cases have been re…

WHO is supporting the Ministry of Public Health of Madagascar to respond to an unusually large measles outbreak. View the full article

From 1 December 2018 through 31 December 2018, the International Health Regulations (IHR) National Focal Point of Saudi Arabia reported five additional cases of Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) infection. View the full article

WHO and partners continue to respond to the ongoing Ebola virus disease (EVD) outbreak in one of the most complex settings possible. View the full article

On 22 November 2018, the World Health Organization was informed of a cluster of suspected Yellow fever (YF) cases and deaths in Edo State, Nigeria. View the full article

As of October 2018, genetically-linked circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus type 2 (cVDPV2) isolates were detected in two cases from Haut-Katanga province (Mufunga-Sampwe district) in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The first case was a 11-year old child who experienced onset of acute flaccid paralysis (AFP) on 6 October. The second case was a 29-month old child who experienced onset of symptoms on 7 October, and is a known contact of the first case. The isolated viruses are a new emergence and unrelated to previously-detected cVDPV2s affecting the country. This is the fourth distinct outbreak of cVDPV2 detected in the country since June 2017. In total, 42 cVDPV…

Pakistan Health Authorities have reported an ongoing outbreak of extensively drug resistant (XDR) typhoid fever that began in the Hyderabad district of Sindh province in November 2016. An increasing trend of typhoid fever cases caused by antimicrobial resistant (AMR) strains of Salmonella enterica serovar Typhi (or S. Typhi) poses a notable public health concern. In May 2018, the case definitions for non-resistant, multi-drug resistant (MDR) and XDR typhoid fever were formally agreed by the Regional Disease Surveillance and Response Unit (RDSRU) in Karachi, following a review by an expert group of epidemiologists, clinicians and microbiologists from Pakistan. All typhoid …

Responding to the Ebola virus disease (EVD) outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo continues to be a complex challenge. View the full article

On 22 November 2018, the World Health Organization (WHO) was informed by Dutch authorities of a laboratory-confirmed case of yellow fever. The case-patient is a 26 year-old male who visited Gambia from 3 through 17 November 2018, with a three day trip to Senegal from 12 through 14 November. He had no history of vaccination for yellow fever prior to the trip. On 18 November 2018, the case-patient developed symptoms including fever, nausea and vomiting. On19 November 2018 he was hospitalized with symptoms of acute liver failure and he is still in hospital as of 10 December. The International Health Regulations National Focal Point (IHR NFP) from the Netherlands has notifi…

The Ebola virus disease (EVD) outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is occurring in an unforgiving context. Non-engagement from communities and conflict continue to hamper response activities in some affected areas. Moreover, poor infection prevention and control (IPC) practices across numerous private and public health centers remain a major source of amplification of the outbreak and risk to health and other frontline workers. Despite these challenges, substantial progress has been made on multiple fronts to address the situation, and daily successes are being observed in the implementation of proven public health measures alongside newer tools, such as vac…

Responding to the Ebola virus disease (EVD) outbreak in north-eastern parts of the Democratic Republic of the Congo continues to be a multifaceted challenge. By utilising proven public health measures (contact tracing, engaging communities) as well as new tools at hand (vaccine and therapeutics), WHO remains confident the outbreak can be contained and brought to an end. During the reporting period (28 November – 4 December 2018), 35 new cases were reported from nine health zones in North Kivu and Ituri provinces: Beni (8), Komanda (eight), Katwa (eight), Vuhovi (three), Kalunguta (two), Butembo (two), Mabalako (two), Masereka (one), and Mutwanga (one). Recent cases in …

As the Ebola virus disease (EVD) outbreak approaches five months since declaration, responding to the outbreak continues to be a challenge; nevertheless, in collaboration with the Ministry of Health (MoH) and partners, WHO remains focused on the ongoing containment efforts to end the outbreak. View the full article

Containing the ongoing Ebola virus disease (EVD) outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is a complex and challenging task but WHO remains confident that the outbreak can be successfully contained in collaboration with the Ministry of Health (MoH) and partners. View the full article

From 16 through 30 October 2018, the International Health Regulations (IHR 2005) National Focal Point of Saudi Arabia reported four additional cases of Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) infection, including one death. View the full article

New measures to overcome obstacles in responding to the Ebola virus disease (EVD) outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo are having a positive impact. The Ministry of Health (MoH), WHO and partners continue to be confident that, despite challenges, the outbreak can be contained. View the full article

As the Ebola virus disease (EVD) outbreak enters the fourth month since declaration, and case numbers surpass 300, substantial progress has been achieved in all aspects of the response. View the full article

From 17 September through 15 October 2018, the International Health Regulations (IHR 2005) National Focal Point of Saudi Arabia reported eight additional cases of MERS-CoV infection, including three deaths. Of the eight cases reported, three were hospital contacts from one hospital in Dammam and two were household contacts in Riyadh. Details of these cases can be found in a separate document (see link below). From 2012 through 15 October 2018, the total global number of laboratory-confirmed MERS-CoV cases reported to WHO is 2262 with 803 associated deaths. View the full article

The increase over the past four weeks in confirmed case incidence (Figure 1), most notably in the city of Beni and communities around Butembo, is concerning. View the full article

From July through September 2018, six cases of circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus type 2 (cVDPV2) were reported from Niger, genetically linked to a cVDPV2 case in Jigawa and Katsina States, Nigeria. The virus was isolated from children with acute flaccid paralysis (AFP) from Zinder region, located in the south of Niger and on the border with Nigeria, with dates of onset of paralysis ranging from 18 July through 16 September 2018. This outbreak has also affected Jigawa, Katsina, Yobe, Gombe, and Borno states in Nigeria, with 17 cases reported since April 2018. View the full article

Security incidents over the past week, ranging from clashes between rebel and government forces resulting in civilian deaths to response vehicles being pelted with stones, continued to cause community distress and severely impede response activities for the Ebola virus disease (EVD) outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. View the full article

The response to the Ebola virus disease (EVD) outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo has seen significant improvements over the past weeks, including strong performances by field teams conducting vaccinations, and improved community engagement and risk communication in priority areas. However, as new cases continue to emerge from Beni and appear closer to security ‘red zones’, it is clear that risks remain and that strong response measures need to be prioritized. The virus’ spread is partly due to security conditions that severely impact frontline and health workers, at times forcing the suspension of response activities and increasing the risk that the virus ma…

On 31 May 2018, the State Ministry of Health (SMOH) of the Red Sea State in Sudan reported four suspected cases of chikungunya fever from Swakin locality, in Red Sea State. Among the signs and symptoms were sudden onset of fever, headache, joint pain and swelling, muscle pain and/or inability to walk. The first suspected case of chikungunya in the neighboring Kassala State was reported on 8 August 2018, in a male travelling from the Red Sea State. Since then cases have been reported in three localities of the State (Kassala, West Kassala and Rural Kassala). On 10 August, among 24 collected blood samples, 22 samples tested positive for chikungunya by PCR and ELISA at th…

The response to the Ebola virus disease (EVD) outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is becoming increasingly undermined by security challenges in at-risk areas, particularly Beni. These incidents severely impact both civilians and frontline workers, forcing suspension of EVD response activities and increasing the risk that the virus will continue to spread. WHO continues to distinguish between the incidents of conflict between rebel and government forces, and pockets of community push-back on the response. A recent increase in the incidence of new cases (Figure 1) is the result of the multitude of challenges faced by response teams. This also reflects improved …

Since the last Disease Outbreak News was published on 20 September (with data as of 15 September), an additional 4914 cases have been reported including 92 laboratory-confirmed cases (Figure 1). View the full article

On 15 July, the outbreak of cholera was officially declared by the Ministry of Public Health of Niger. The first three cases were residents of Nigeria from Jibiya Local Government Area (LGA) in Katsina State on the border with Niger. The cases were all from the same family and reportedly had an onset of symptoms in Jibiya LGA before seeking treatment on 5 July 2018 at a health facility in a bordering town in Niger. Vibrio cholerae serotype O1 Inaba was confirmed in stool samples from all three cases, one of which died within minutes of admission. In addition to these cases, six cases were reported in the following two days from villages in Niger located approximately 4km …