ProMED: Ebola returns to Uganda

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

Wed 28 Aug 2019. WHO Dashboard:

3004 cases (204 cases in past 21 days)
15 600 contacts being followed of 17 400 contacts identified
902 survived
2006 deaths

A 9-year-old Congolese girl who tested positive for Ebola in neighboring Uganda has died, officials said Friday [30 Aug 2019]. The young girl's body will be repatriated with her mother back to Congo for a funeral, according to Dr. Eddy Kasenda, Ebola representative in the Congolese border town of Kasindi. See Washington Post, 30 August 2019

See also CIDRAP, 29 August 2019

 

Outbreak response

Tues 27 Aug, EPIDEMIOLOGICAL SITUATION IN THE PROVINCES OF NORTH KIVU AND ITURI AT AUGUST 27, 201 (via H5N1 blog)

On Wed 28 Aug 2019, the Sub-Coordination of the Response to Ebola Virus Disease organized a motorized caravan in the Katsya Health Area in Butembo in North Kivu Province. This caravan was intended to promote the end of Ebola in this health area.

More than 100 taximen from various associations of Butembo motorcyclists supported the caravan.

Since vaccination began on 8 Aug 2018, 206 774 people have been vaccinated. The only vaccine to be used in this outbreak is the rVSV-ZEBOV vaccine, manufactured by the pharmaceutical group Merck, following approval by the Ethics Committee in its decision of 20 May 2018.

To date, a total of 98 entry points and sanitary control points have been set up in the provinces of North Kivu and Ituri to protect the country's major cities and prevent the spread of the epidemic in neighboring countries.

Sun 25 Aug, WHO Regional Office for Africa, Weekly bulletin:

Contact tracing is ongoing in 20 health zones. A total of 17 293 contacts are under follow-up as of 24 Aug 2019, of which 1568 have been seen in the past 24 hours, comprising 89% of the contacts, which is a higher percentage than during the past 7 days (85%). Alerts in the affected provinces continue to be raised and investigated. Of 2073 alerts processed (of which 1996 were new) in reporting health zones on 24 Aug 2019, 1973 were investigated and 396 (20%) were validated as suspected cases.

 

Disease Research

Ebola virus disease and breastfeeding: time for attention, The Lancet:

They comment: Ample information is available on the presence of Ebola virus in bodily fluids such as blood, urine, and semen, and on the prevention of transmission from these fluids. However, information on EVD and breastmilk is limited.

The repercussions of a lack of clarity on these questions are potentially enormous for DR Congo. If breastfeeding is wrongly discouraged, years of public health efforts to promote breastfeeding could be lost. Conversely, if breastfeeding is wrongly encouraged, many infants could be put at risk.

See the full ProMED report