ProMED: MERS-CoV infection edges near 2500 cases, as civil unrest disrupted Ebola response

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.

MERS

Location

Saudi Arabia
 

Outbreak Update

From 2 to 5 December 2019, there has been one newly confirmed case of MERS-CoV infection and 3 recoveries.

The newly confirmed case is a 65-year-old man in Hafar Albartin, the Eastern region. He is believed to have had contact with camels.

From 1-31 Oct 2019, the National IHR Focal Point of Saudi Arabia reported 15 additional cases of Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS-CoV) infection and 6 associated deaths.

The cases were reported from Assir, Al-Qassim, Riyadh, and Taif regions. Of the 15 cases reported, 4 were linked to 2 separate clusters. Cluster 1 involved a patient (case #1) and a healthcare worker (case #5) in Assir region. Cluster 2 involved a patient (case #12) and a healthcare worker (case #15) in Riyadh region.

From 2012 to 31 October 2019, the total number of laboratory-confirmed MERS-CoV infection cases reported globally to WHO is 2484, with 857 associated deaths (case fatality rate 34.5%).

The global number reflects the total number of laboratory-confirmed cases reported to WHO under the International Health Regulations (IHR 2005) to date. The total number of deaths includes the deaths that WHO is aware of to date through follow-up with affected member states.

Sources: 

Saudi Arabia Ministry of Health — 2-5 December 2019

WHO — MERS-CoV Disease Outbreak News, 5 December 2019
 

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Ebola

Location

Democratic Republic of Congo
 

Outbreak Update

As of 3 December 2019, the cumulative number of cases is 3313, of which 3195 are confirmed and 118 are probable. In total, there were 2207 deaths and 1084 people healed. 326 suspected cases are under investigation. The cumulative number of confirmed/probable cases among health workers is 163 (5% of all confirmed/probable cases), including 41 deaths.

To date, 255 716 people have been vaccinated with rVSV-ZEBOV vaccine, produced by Merck, and 1070 have been vaccinated with the second Ebola vaccine, produced by Johnson and Johnson.

Since the beginning of the epidemic, the total number of travelers checked (temperature measurement) at the sanitary control points is 123 008 402.

Over the past couple of weeks, Ebola response activities have been severely disrupted in some areas due to security reasons. This includes a reduction in the volume of reported and investigated alerts and the number of contacts registered and followed. The volume of alerts from health zones affected by insecurity is lower than usual, and this has led to an overall reduction in the average number of alerts reported.
 

Key global health development

Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance announced that it will create and fund an emergency Ebola vaccine stockpile, part of efforts meant to streamline the response to future outbreaks.

The stockpiling plan was approved by Gavi's board, which met this week in New Delhi, India.

Gavi said it will open a new funding window with an investment of USD 178 million between now and 2025, which will allow low- and middle-income countries to get the vaccine free of charge. The stockpile will include 500 000 doses, the number recommended by the WHO Strategic Advisory Group of Experts (SAGE) on Immunization.


Sources: 

DRC CMRE Team - Daily Epidemiological Situation Update (translated from French), 3 December 2019

WHO — Disease Outbreak News, 5 December 2019

CIDRAP — Gavi create fund Ebola vaccine stockpile
 

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Lassa fever

Location

Nigeria
 

Outbreak Update

From 18-24 November 2019, 8 new confirmed cases were reported from Ondo and Edo states in Nigeria, with no new deaths.

Up to 24 November, this year has seen a total of 4681 suspected cases from 23 states. Of these 795 were confirmed positive, 19 probable and 3877 negative. There have been 160 deaths in confirmed cases; case-fatality ratio is 20.4%.

The majority of cases have affected those aged 21-40 years. The male-to-female ratio for confirmed cases is 1:1

A total of 19 healthcare workers have been infected since the onset of the outbreak.

A total of 20 patients are currently being managed at various treatment centres across the country: Irrua Specialist Teaching Hospital (ISTH) treatment centre, Federal Medical Centre, Owo, and Federal Teaching Hospital Abakaliki. 9321 contacts have been identified from 21 states. Of these, 347 (3.7%) are currently being followed up, 8894 (95.4%) have completed 21 days follow-up, while 12 (0.1%) were lost to follow-up. 144 symptomatic contacts have been identified, of which 68 (47.2%) have tested positive.

National Lassa fever multi-partner, multi-sectoral Technical Working Group (TWG) continues to coordinate response activities at all levels.

Sources: 

Nigeria Centre for Disease Control - Lassa fever Situation Report, 24 November 2019 
 

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