Attachments
Overview
This Weekly Bulletin focuses on selected acute public health emergencies occurring in the WHO African Region. The WHO Health Emergencies Programme is currently monitoring 72 events in the region. This week’s edition covers key new and ongoing events, including:
- Malaria in Burundi
- Measles in Comoros Islands
- Ebola virus disease in Democratic Republic of the Congo
- Humanitarian crisis in Central African Republic.
For each of these events, a brief description, followed by public health measures implemented and an interpretation of the situation is provided.
A table is provided at the end of the bulletin with information on all new and ongoing public health events currently being monitored in the region, as well as recent events that have largely been controlled and thus closed.
Major issues and challenges include:
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There has been a significant reduction in the number of new Ebola virus disease cases and deaths reported in Democratic Republic of the Congo in the last weeks. While it is still too early to make any conclusions, this observed declining trend is very positive and encouraging. There have been several initiatives and efforts to step up the response to the outbreak in the past weeks.
While still being aware of the prevailing risk factors in the communities, it is anticipated that these initiatives and intensified efforts will turn the tide on the ongoing high levels of transmissions of infections. The national authorities and all stakeholders need to sustain implementation of effective public health measures in order to bring this outbreak to an end. -
Health authorities in Burundi have detected a potential malaria outbreak in several health districts in the country. This event comes barely one year after the occurrence of a large malaria outbreak in 2017, signifying the vulnerability of the country to malaria epidemics. The national authorities and partners need to capitalize on the early detection of this event and mount a robust response in order to bring the outbreak to a speedy end and avoid escalation of the situation.