Overview
This Weekly Bulletin focuses on selected acute public health emergencies occurring in the WHO African Region. The WHO Health Emergencies Programme (WHE) is currently monitoring 60 events in the region. This week’s edition covers key ongoing events, including:
- Ebola virus disease outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo
- Lassa fever in Togo
- Humanitarian crises in Central African Republic
- Hepatitis E 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.
Major issues and challenges include:
The Ebola virus disease (EVD) outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) persists and continues to be closely monitored. Response operations have fully resumed in all locations; however, contact tracing remains challenging. The outbreak in Beni is continuing to improve despite temporary disruption of response activities due to security challenges. WHO remains committed to support the MoH in responding to the EVD outbreak. These will require the continued implementation and intensification of traditional and novel response strategies with adequate involvement of all relevant stakeholders.
The hepatitis E outbreak in the Republic of Central Africa is ongoing. Six months following the onset of the outbreak, the trend is improving. However, transmission is persisting in some areas despite response efforts. There is a need to intensify control measures and address risk factors in order to contain this outbreak.