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Weekly Bulletin on Outbreaks and other Emergencies: Week 19: 1 - 7 May 2023 (Data as reported by: 17:00; 7 May 2023)

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This Weekly Bulletin focuses on public health emergencies occurring in the WHO African region. This week’s articles cover:

  • Floods in Rwanda

  • Lassa fever in Ghana (End of outbreak declaration)

  • COVID-19 in the WHO African region

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 been controlled and closed.

Major issues and challenges include:

  • The Northern and Western Provinces of Rwanda were left devastated by rains that occurred on 2 and 3 May 2023. A complete risk assessment is still pending since some affected districts are unreachable. People who have been displaced have sought shelter in overcrowded camps which face challenges to meet the needs of the surge of victims.
    More rains were expected through 6 May 2023, and were projected to drop more than 20 mm rainfall per day likely causing even more damage to people and infrastructure.

  • In Ghana, the Lassa fever outbreak has been declared over by the Ghana Health Service after an outbreak affected 27 people and killed one person. Swift implementation of public health measures led to the effective control and ultimate break in transmission of the disease. However, lessons can still be learned from this outbreak including the need for rigorous health worker precautions since they were among the cases infected.