Weekly Bulletin on Outbreaks
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WEEKLY BULLETIN ON OUTBREAKS AND OTHER EMERGENCIES Week 26: 21-27 June 2021 Data as reported by: 17:00; 27 June 2021 REGIONAL OFFICE FOR Africa WHO Health Emergencies Programme 0 121 109 12 New event Ongoing events Outbreaks Humanitarian crises 64 0 138 465 3 693 Algeria ¤ 36 13 983 0 6 069 181 Mauritania 14 417 525 48 0 110 0 42 904 1 164 Niger 20 336 481 5 780 21 Mali 21 0 9 0 Cape Verde 6 471 16 4 951 174 Chad Eritrea Senegal 5 479 193 Gambia 3 0 66 0 32 372 286 1 414 8 Guinea-Bissau 847 17 Burkina Faso 2 060 56 275 935 4 314 167 467 2 119 Guinea 13 478 168 13 0 3 846 69 1 1 30 0 Benin 198 0 Nigeria 1 063 4 61 0 1 0 Ethiopia 13 2 6 995 50 556 5 872 15 Sierra Leone Togo 530 0 80 487 1 320 Ghana 7 141 98 Côte d'Ivoire 10 824 116 19 000 304 71 0 45 0 Liberia 17 0 South Sudan Central African Republic 1 313 2 0 25 0 50 14 0 95 476 795 6 738 221 Cameroon 23 692 290 3 0 48 192 312 35 173 196 7 0 58 0 199 2 1 389 30 9 1 620 1 182 597 3 595 2 0 168 0 5 381 94 13 837 128 2 0 8 723 121 Equatorial Guinea Uganda 356 0 822 9 Sao Tome and Principe 4 0 3 736 120 78 394 903 Kenya Gabon Legend Congo 3 307 90 305 26 Rwanda 8 170 104 2 365 37 36 627 420 24 984 159 Democratic Republic of the Congo 12 485 165 Burundi Measles 5 423 8 Seychelles 40 254 916 435 0 Humanitarian crisis 564 43 Monkeypox United Republic of Tanzania 197 0 15 111 55 Suspected Drancuculiasis Lassa fever 509 21 241 1 6 257 229 Cholera Yellow fever 38 556 889 148 568 2 022 Comoros Meningitis 304 3 cVDPV2 Angola Malawi Leishmaniasis 35 629 1 182 726 0 3 924 146 Zambia 133 0 COVID-19 Mozambique Plague 5 681 35 Hantavirus 815 3 42 194 906 Diarrhoeal disease in children under five years Zimbabwe Anthrax 75 138 868 Madagascar Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever Mauritius 46 442 1 736 8 062 66 768 181 0 Dengue fever 70 071 1 095 Rift Valley fever 1 800 18 Namibia 109 2 Malaria Unknown disease related to camels Botswana 6 0 Hepatitis E Countries reported in the document 84 705 1 400 Eswatini Acute Food Countries outside WHO African Region 1 0 Insecurity 19 035 678 WHO Member States with no reported events South Africa Cases Lesotho Deaths Not applicable 11 239 329 1 928 897 59 900 Graded events † “The boundaries and names shown and the designations used on this map do not imply the expression of any (2) opinion whatsoever on the part of the World Health Organization concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. Dotted and dashed lines on maps represent approximate borderlines for which there may not yet be full agreement.” 0 410 820 Kilometers 38 48 26 Grade 3 events Grade 2 events Grade 1 events 40 23 30 31 Ungraded events ProtractedProtracted 3 3 events events Protracted 2 events ProtractedProtracted 1 1 events event Health Emergency Information and Risk Assessment Overview Contents This Weekly Bulletin focuses on public health emergencies occurring in the WHO African Region. The WHO Health Emergencies Programme is currently monitoring 121 events in the region. This week’s articles cover: 1 Overview COVID-19 across the WHO African region Visceral Leishmaniasis in Chad 2 -6 Ongoing events Humanitarian Crisis in South Sudan For each of these events, a brief description, followed by public health measures Summary of major 7 implemented and an interpretation of the situation is provided. issues, challenges and proposed actions 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 8 All events currently have been controlled and closed. being monitored Major issues and challenges include: Regional COVID-19 case counts and related deaths continued to increase over the past week (21-27 June 2021) with nearly 170 000 new weekly cases and over 2 500 deaths recorded. This marks the seventh consecutive week that we have seen an increase in new COVID-19 cases. Overall, COVID-19 cases and deaths are on the rise in the African Region, and we are experiencing the third wave. Health worker infections continue to increase in several countries across the region, including Ethiopia, Namibia, Kenya, Seychelles. Even if major progress has been made with COVID-19 vaccinations, there remains a serious imbalance in the global distribution of vaccines with Africa having vaccines sufficient for less than 1.0% of the population of the continent. Sporadic cases of visceral leishmaniasis have been reported in Chad since 2018. However, currently, the incidence and prevalence rates of visceral leishmaniasis are not known in the country. Leishmaniasis is not treated as a reportable health problem in Chad and does not appear in the Health Statistics Directory of the Ministry of Public Health and National Solidarity. However, a large number of people are suffering from the infection. The situation is more alarming especially among difficult to reach populations (nomadic pastoralists) and in disaster-affected or humanitarian crisis situations (displaced persons, returnees, refugees) due to the absence of control programs and surveillance systems. In South Sudan, the frequent escalation of sub-national violence and unpredictable security situation, inaccessibility, weak health system and limited resources for the responding partners continue to limit the ongoing humanitarian response. Instability of the security situation leads to the inability to host humanitarian services and requires large costs to maintain response operations. The upcoming rainy season will likely increase the risk of the spread of vector- and water-borne diseases such as malaria, cholera, and other infectious disease outbreaks which can further complicate the humanitarian situation. 1 Health Emergency Information and Risk Assessment Health Emergency Information and Risk Assessment Ongoing events 157 3 942 448 94 217 2.4% Coronavirus disease 2019 African region Cases Deaths CFR The African Region reported more than 169 949 new coronavirus (2.2%). These five countries account for (73 621, 78.0%) of all (COVID-19) cases in the past seven days (20 - 27 June 2021), a deaths reported in the region. The median number of deaths 21.8% increase compared to the previous week when 139 528 new per million in the African region is estimated at 30.7 per million cases were reported. Eighteen countries (39.0%) saw an increase (ranging between 0.4 and 1 023 per million). South Africa (1 023 in weekly cases in the past seven days, of which Chad, Comoros, cases per million population), Eswatini (590 cases per million Eswatini, Malawi, Mozambique, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra population), Seychelles (563 cases per million population), Leone, South Africa, Togo, and Zimbabwe had an increase above Namibia (561 cases per million population), Cabo Verde (520 or equal to 20.0% compared to the previous week. At the same cases per million population) and Botswana (447 cases per million time, a total of 26 (26.5%) countries reported a decrease in new population) are the five countries with the highest number of cases. Algeria and Gabon did not record any significant change in COVID-19 related deaths per million population. Niger (8.5 cases their number of new cases identified in the past week. per million population), Benin (8.3 cases per million population), Burkina Faso (8.1 cases per million population), Eritrea (6.5 cases Morbidity remains high in the African Region with an average of per million population), Burundi (0.6 cases per million population) 24 000 cases reported each day over the past seven days. Most and United Republic of Tanzania (0.4 cases per million population) (62.1%; 105 578) of the new COVID-19 infections were reported are the five countries with the lowest number of COVID-19 related from South Africa, although 45 countries reported new cases in deaths per million population this period. This was followed by Zambia reporting 19 535 cases (11.5%), Namibia 8 939 (5.3%), Rwanda 5 814 (3.4%), and During this reporting period, 541 new health worker infections Uganda with 4 993 (3.0%). The number of new cases reported were reported from Namibia (216), Ethiopia (203), and Kenya from these countries in the past week increased except for Uganda (122). Cumulatively, there have been 114 518 COVID-19 infections and Namibia that saw a decline after recent weeks of consecutive (3.0% of all cases) among health workers, with South Africa increase. accounting for about 49.1% (56 180) of these cases. Algeria (11 936, 10.4%), Kenya (5 592, 4.9%), Ghana (4 763, 4.2%) and At the same time, an increase in the death toll (16.8%) was observed Zimbabwe (4 391, 3.8%) have also recorded a high number of in the same reporting period, with 2 519 new deaths recorded health worker infections. Other countries reporting health worker from 33 countries. Most of these deaths were concentrated in a infections are shown in Table 1. Zimbabwe (10.0%), Algeria few countries including: South Africa, which reported the majority (9.0%), and Niger (7.0%) have the highest country specific of deaths, (1 198, 47.6%), followed by Zambia with 378 (15.0%), proportion of health worker infections.