Disease outbreak news from the WHO: Ebola virus disease – Democratic Republic of the Congo

The Ebola virus disease (EVD) outbreak is continuing with moderate intensity. Katwa and Butembo remain the major health zones of concern, while simultaneously, small clusters continue to occur in various geographically dispersed locations. During the last 21 days (30 January – 19 February 2019), 79 new cases have been reported from 40 health areas within 12 health zones (Figure 1), including: Katwa (46), Butembo (15), Kyondo (4), Vuhovi (4), Kalunguta (2), Oicha (2), Biena (1), Mabalako (1), Manguredjipa (1), Masereka (1), Mutwanga (1), and Rwampara (1).¹

No new cases have been reported from the Beni in the last three weeks. This is a significant achievement given the previous intensity of the outbreak in this area. Elsewhere, trends in the case incidence (Figure 2) have been encouraging; however, other indicators (such as the continued high proportion of community deaths, persistent delays in case detection, documented local travel amongst many cases, and relatively low numbers of cases among contacts under surveillance) suggest a high risk of further chains of transmission in affected communities. Response teams must maintain a high degree of vigilance across all areas with declining case and contact tracing activity, as with areas with active cases, to rapidly detect new cases and prevent onward transmission.

Published on February 21, 2019 at 01:00AM
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