Health Alerts

A review of the current Ebola virus disease (EVD) outbreak undertaken by the WHO has Beni health zone as the current hotspot but there are indications that ‘Butembo and Mabalako are preferred destinations for potential contacts’. Of the 29 health zones that have reported cases during the outbreak, ‘23 health zones have not reported cases for more than 42 days. However, surveillance is still ongoing in these health zones.’ There have been no new confirmed cases reported in the four CMRE newsletters to Feb 11, but 440 remain under investigation. More indepth information is contained in the WHO SitRep #79 (data to Feb 9) and on Feb 12 a decision will be made on whether the outbreak remains a PHEIC.

ONE CASE of circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus 2 (cVDPV2), linked to a strain producing cases in Angola, has been reported in the megacity of Kinshasa, home to more than 11 million people. The case hasn’t yet been formally recorded in the current statistics listed by the GPEI (a further five genetically-distinct cVDPV2 viruses from Kwilu, Kongo Central, Kinshasa and Sankuru provinces have however), but the organisation voiced concern over the news due to the risk of spread both within the city and on to the two million inhabitants of Brazzaville, the capital of the Republic of the Congo which sits on the opposite bank of the Congo River. The GPEI documented cVDPV2 cases in Angola (eight from the provinces of Bié, Malanje and Cuanza Norte and also from the capital, Luanda) and Burkina Faso (Centre-Est administrative region) – all date from infections contracted in 2019. In other polio news, Pakistan’s 2020 total of WPV1 cases rose to seven, and a Feb 6 UNICEF update on the situation in the Philippines noted no new polio cases since Jan 27 while vaccination campaigns continue in affected regions. Read more.