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 54 events in the region. This week’s edition covers key ongoing events, including:
- Ebola virus disease outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo
- Cholera outbreak in Niger
- Cholera outbreak in Zimbabwe
- Measles outbreak in Chad
- Cholera outbreak in Nigeria.
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 events that have recently been closed.
Major issues and challenges include:
The Ebola virus disease outbreak in North Kivu and Ituri provinces, Democratic Republic of the Congo continues to evolve, although the Ministry of Health, WHO and partners have made major progress in response to the outbreak and recent trends suggest that control measures are working, although they must still be interpreted with caution. The 18 September 2018 was the third consecutive day with no new deaths reported. However, all concerned, need to continue their response efforts to ensure that the outbreak is rapidly brought to a close.
The recently declared cholera outbreak in Zimbabwe is of significant concern, with several thousand suspected cases reported from five provinces across the country, the majority of which are from Harare and Chitungwiza cities. The government has declared a state of disaster and is actively addressing the underlying drivers of the outbreak, which are decaying water and sanitation infrastructure. The government have led the response from the front and the national and international public health community are being mobilised to support the strengthening of control activities.