Democratic Republic of the Congo

Summary

Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) declared their tenth outbreak of Ebola in 40 years on 1 August 2018. The outbreak is centred in the northeast of the country. With the number of cases passing 2,500, it is now by far the country's largest-ever Ebola outbreak. It is also the second-biggest Ebola epidemic ever recorded, behind the West Africa outbreak of 2014-2016.

• In Central African Republic, a series of previously-detected/reported VDPV2s have now been officially classified as ‘circulating’. Since initial detection of the viruses in May, the country had already operationally considered these viruses to represent an outbreak and implemented emergency outbreak response and declared the event to be a national public health emergency.

• A cVDPV2 originating in Jigawa, Nigeria, continues to spread. Genetically-linked virus has been confirmed from an environmental sample in Ghana.

Attacks on education

The section aligns with the definition of attacks on education used by the Global Coalition to Protect Education under Attack (GCPEA) in Education under Attack 2018.

Africa

Burkina Faso

Le 17 juillet 2019, le Directeur général a convoqué la réunion du Comité d’urgence au titre du Règlement sanitaire international (RSI) (2005) concernant la maladie à virus Ebola (MVE) en République démocratique du Congo (RDC). Cette réunion du Comité d'urgence était convoquée pour la quatrième fois par le Directeur général depuis la déclaration de la flambée en août 2018 (les réunions précédentes avaient eu lieu en octobre 2018, avril 2019 et juin 2019).

Speaking in Geneva, spokesperson Dr. Margaret Harris noted that measles has already killed more people this year than the Ebola outbreak, which began last August.

According to WHO, more than 2,000 people have died from measles in 2019, while the Ebola outbreak which began last August in Ituri and Nord Kivu provinces has claimed 1,705 lives.

CAFOD is on the frontline in DR Congo where the World Health Organisation has declared an Ebola global health emergency.

What has happened so far?

The year-old outbreak (August 2018) of the Ebola virus, has reached the bustling city of Goma, on the edge of Lake Kivu in eastern DR Congo, near the border with Rwanda.

On 17 July the World Health Organisation (WHO) declared the Ebola outbreak in the country a global health emergency.

This week, CAFOD Director Christine Allen arrived in the country and welcomed the WHO declaration:

Conformément à son engagement à tenir régulièrement informée l’opinion nationale et internationale sur la situation épidémiologique au Mali, le Ministère de la Santé et des Affaires Sociales communique :

Highlights:

DR Congo: The cholera outbreaks are still concentrated in North Kivu (124) and South Kivu (156).

Cameroon: An outbreak of cholera is currently raging in the region of North and Far North. During the week 27, twenty-three (23) new cases were recorded in the health districts of Kaele (9), Garoua 1 (6), Garoua 2 (4), Figuil (3) and Pitoa (1).

Nigeria: Cholera cases are concentrated in Adamawa (40) and Katsina (24) states. In the state of Adamawa, the health districts of Girei (15), Yola Nord (7) and Yola Sud (18) are the most affected.

HIGHLIGHTS

• High-level delegation led by the Humanitarian Coordinator visits Yei to see Ebola preparedness and response efforts

• Ebola preparedness and response activities heighten as a case is confirmed near the South Sudan border

• Humanitarian Fund brings change in the lives of 2.9 million people

• More than 3,300 internally displaced people return to Baliet County, Upper Nile

• Almost 7 million people facing critical lack of food

Scope

This document aims to provide guidance to EU/EEA public health authorities, public health professionals and healthcare practitioners for the management of persons having had contact with cases of Ebola virus disease (EVD) after visiting or working in an area that is affected by EVD; also covered is occupational exposure to the disease.

Against the backdrop of on-going preparedness work in Uganda as related to the outbreak of Ebola in DRC, this brief summarises key considerations concerning cross-border dynamics and health structures and behaviours in the West Nile sub-region of north-west Uganda. It builds upon the SSHAP brief ‘Uganda-DRC: cross-border dynamics’ (published December 2018).

Key facts

• For 2017, no cases of Ebola virus disease and Marburg haemorrhagic fever were reported in the EU/EEA.

Methods

This report is based on data for 2017 retrieved from The European Surveillance System (TESSy) on 11 December 2018. TESSy is a system for the collection, analysis and dissemination of data on communicable diseases.

For a detailed description of methods used to produce this report, refer to the Methods chapter [1].
An overview of the national surveillance systems is available online [2].

Alloya, a town serving a gold mining district in North Kivu is a town that understands trade and business. It is also a town with deep mistrust of Ebola responders. All too often, the belief that the Ebola response is about ‘business’ rather than saving lives, has taken hold.

In late June, cases of Ebola began to reappear in Alloya, following reintroduction of the virus by an infected person who avoided surveillance and travelled to the area from the then epicentre, Butembo.

The following syndrome has been flagged:

• Acute Fever and Rash: Fiji, Northern Mariana Islands, Samoa

Other updates:

Dengue

• Yap state, Micronesia reports three cases of dengue serotype-3. [Source: Personal communication with MoH staff].

• There has been a constant decline in the weekly number of dengue-like illness and dengue confirmed (Dengue Duo Rapid Diagnostis Test positive) cases since the peak in June in Tuvalu.

Measles

Stamford, Conn. – July 17, 2019 – Americares is delivering more than 20 tons of medical supplies for health workers in the Democratic Republic of the Congo battling the second largest Ebola outbreak on record.

Today, the World Health Organization declared the outbreak a public health emergency of international concern, citing the geographical spread of the virus. Though quickly identified and isolated, the emergence of the virus earlier this week in Goma, a major city and transit hub, heightened concerns about the spread of the deadly disease.

On 17 July 2019, the Director-General convened the Emergency Committee under the International Health Regulations (IHR) to review the situation on the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). It was the fourth time the Director-General convened the Committee for this event since the declaration of the outbreak in August 2018 (previous meetings were held in October 2018, April 2019, and June 2019). The Director-General accepted the Emergency Committee’s recommendation that the outbreak constitutes a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC).

South Sudan - Crisis Fact Sheet #8, Fiscal Year (FY) 2019

HIGHLIGHTS

• Spontaneous South Sudanese refugee returns from Sudan continue in July

• Bureaucratic impediments restrict humanitarian operations in Central Equatoria, Jonglei

KEY DEVELOPMENTS

Written Ministerial Statement to Parliament by Rory Stewart, Secretary of State for International Development