ProMED: Ebola in the DRC, Rift Valley fever in Mayotte

Epidemics can occur anywhere, at any time.

We publish regular updates, produced by Program for Monitoring Emerging Diseases (ProMED), on outbreaks of emerging infectious diseases to keep you informed on the frequency and impact of our priority diseases.

ProMED is the largest publicly-available system conducting global reporting of infectious diseases outbreaks, with ProMED staff, moderators and team members scanning for, reviewing and posting information relating to global health security from official health reports and media articles.

The below post contains information from health reports, news articles, and academic papers relating to our priority diseases, compiled together by ProMED. Content below may be edited from original ProMED posts for style and length.

These posts provide an overview of disease outbreak activity over the past several weeks. For the latest information relating to outbreaks of infectious diseases, please visit the ProMED website.

Ebola

Location

North Kivu, South Kivu, and Ituri provinces, Democratic Republic of Congo
 

Outbreak Update

Sun 18 Aug:

Since the beginning of the epidemic, the cumulative number of cases is 2861, of which 2767 are confirmed and 94 probable. In total, there have been 1921 deaths (1827 in confirmed and 94 in probable cases) and 849 people have recovered.

360 suspected cases under investigation;
9 new confirmed cases, including 5 in North Kivu, including 3 in Beni, 1 in Kalunguta and 1 in Musienene, 2 in Ituri in Mambasa and 2 in South Kivu in Mwenga;
8 new confirmed deaths, including 5 in North Kivu, 1 in Ituri and 1 in South Kivu: 5 community deaths, including 3 in North Kivu, including 2 in Beni and 1 in Kalunguta, 1 in Ituri in Mambasa and 1 in South Kivu in Mwenga; 3 deaths in CTEs [Ebola treatment centres] , including 2 in North Kivu in Beni and 1 in Ituri in Komanda.
1 person recovered at the CTE in North Kivu in Butembo;
No health worker is among the new confirmed cases. The cumulative number of confirmed/probable cases among health workers is 153 (5% of all confirmed/probable cases), including 41 deaths.


New health zone affected by Ebola virus disease [EVD] in South Kivu
This is a 24 year old woman and her 7 month old son. On the mother's side, symptoms of EVD began to appear on 4 Aug 2019 in Beni, but she died on 14 Aug 2019 in Mwenga after consulting 2 health facilities, namely the Kangolo and Kilingutu Health Center;
The sample taken from the deceased tested positive on 15 Aug 2019 and her son was confirmed positive, 15 Aug 2019. He has been put in isolation for treatment;
According to initial investigations, the woman from Bukavu was living with a host family at the Mabolio Health Area in the Beni Health Zone in North Kivu Province. She was listed as a high-risk contact around a member of this family, confirmed MVE on 25 Jul 2019;
On the 12th day of her follow-up, on 6 Aug 2019, there was an alert about her move to Bukavu by the teams of the response and she was found accompanied by her 2 children
A total of 120 contacts have already been listed around these 2 cases.

A 3rd case of the Ebola epidemic has been confirmed in the territory of Mwenga, in the province of South Kivu, reports the technical secretariat in charge of the response. This 3rd case is diagnosed just 3 days after the official announcement of the disease in South Kivu where a death was recorded. (via Actualite.cd)

 

Rift Valley fever

Location

Mayotte
 

Outbreak Update

In IMAZ Press, 20 Aug 2019:

Since the end of November 2018—the beginning of the circulation of the Rift Valley fever virus in Mayotte­—143 human cases have been reported to the ARS [regional health agency; Agence Régionale de Santé] by the CHM [Mayotte hospital centre; Centre Hospitalier de Mayotte] laboratory, and 126 animal foci have been reported.

Epidemiological situation as of 16 Aug 2019:
The total number since the beginning of the epizootic is 126 outbreaks of sick animals (100 cattle and 26 small ruminants) - that is, no new cases since 12 Jul [2019].

The CHM laboratory has reported one new human case since 12 Jul [2019]. Thus, since the beginning of the epidemic, the total number is 143 human cases. Of the cases reported, 2 serious cases have been reported to date.
 

Outbreak Response

As soon as the 1st cases arrived, preventive measures and vector control measures had been put in place on the island in order to limit the spread of the disease on the territory.

Although the number of cases has stabilized for several weeks, the Rift Valley fever virus still circulates in some communes of the island. Therefore, the health authorities reiterate the importance of continuing to respect preventive measures to prevent infection and prevent an epidemic recovery when the rainy season returns.

See the full ProMED post