Week 16: 12-18 April 2021
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WEEKLY BULLETIN ON OUTBREAKS AND OTHER EMERGENCIES Week 16: 12-18 April 2021 Data as reported by: 17:00; 18 April 2021 REGIONAL OFFICE FOR Africa WHO Health Emergencies Programme 0 114 101 13 New event Ongoing events Outbreaks Humanitarian crises 119 642 3 155 Algeria ¤ 36 13 110 0 5 694 170 Mauritania 7 2 13 070 433 110 0 7 0 Niger 17 129 453 Mali 3 491 10 567 0 6 0 2 079 4 4 706 169 Eritrea Cape Verde 39 782 1 091 Chad Senegal 5 074 189 61 0 Gambia 27 0 3 0 20 466 191 973 5 Guinea-Bissau 847 17 7 0 Burkina Faso 236 49 242 028 3 370 0 164 233 2 061 Guinea 13 129 154 12 38 397 1 3 712 66 1 1 23 12 Benin 30 0 Nigeria 1 873 72 0 Ethiopia 540 2 481 5 6 188 15 Sierra Leone Togo 3 473 296 61 731 919 52 14 Ghana 5 787 75 Côte d'Ivoire 10 473 114 14 484 479 63 0 40 0 Liberia 17 0 South Sudan Central African Republic 916 2 45 0 97 17 25 0 21 612 260 45 560 274 91 709 771 Cameroon 7 0 28 676 137 5 330 13 151 653 2 481 655 2 43 0 119 12 6 1 488 6 4 028 79 12 533 7 259 106 Equatorial Guinea Uganda 542 8 Sao Tome and Principe 32 11 2 066 85 41 378 338 Kenya Legend 7 611 95 Gabon Congo 2 012 73 Rwanda Humanitarian crisis 2 275 35 23 888 325 Measles 21 858 133 Democratic Republic of the Congo 10 084 137 Burundi 3 612 6 Monkeypox Ebola virus disease Seychelles 28 956 745 235 0 420 29 United Republic of Tanzania Lassa fever Skin disease of unknown etiology 190 0 4875 25 509 21 Cholera Yellow fever 1 349 5 6 257 229 24 389 561 cVDPV2 Dengue fever 90 918 1 235 Comoros Angola Malawi COVID-19 Chikungunya 33 941 1 138 862 0 3 815 146 Zambia 133 0 Mozambique Anthrax Leishmaniasis 2 952 40 798 3 32 205 542 Avian influenza Plague Zimbabwe 69 203 798 Madagascar Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever Mauritius Malaria 37 751 1 553 10 227 66 44 075 671 Hepatitis E Rift Valley fever 1 198 15 Namibia West Nile fever Botswana Acute Food Insecurity Countries reported in the document 45 527 570 Cases Eswatini Countries outside WHO African Region Deaths 18 417 671 WHO Member States with no reported events South Africa Lesotho Not applicable 10 709 315 1 565 680 53 711 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 20 2 1 Grade 3 events Grade 2 events Grade 1 events 2 23 30 501 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 116 events in the region. This week’s articles cover: 1 Overview COVID-19 across the WHO African region Ebola virus disease in Guinea 2 -5 Ongoing events Ebola virus disease in Democratic Republic of the Congo Humanitarian crisis, Northeast Nigeria Summary of major 6 issues, challenges For each of these events, a brief description, followed by public health measures and proposed actions 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 All events currently 7 public health events currently being monitored in the region, as well as recent events that being monitored have been controlled and closed. Major issues and challenges include: Ethiopia is the leading country in reporting new cases, followed by South Africa and Kenya in the past seven days. The highest death toll has been reported in South Africa since the declaration of the epidemic in the region. As more deaths in the region are reported, the cumulative deaths have now reached more than 80 000. While the cumulative case fatality ratio has remained constant at 2.4% for the past two months, it is still above the global average of 2.1%. Health worker infections remain of concern as the numbers continue to increase across the region. Guinea is still experiencing major challenges around its response to the ongoing Ebola virus disease outbreak. Contact follow-up remains of particular concern with many contacts lost to follow-up. Isolating suspected patients is also a problem and the source of infection in Gouécké has not yet been identified. In addition, there is a large funding gap for response activities, which needs urgent action. There have been no new Ebola virus disease cases in Democratic Republic of the Congo for 47 days. Challenges with contact follow-up, difficulties with feedback from health zones and inadequate funding for all response pillars all continue, however. Insecurity in the affected areas continues to impact response. These issues need urgent attention and adequate funding needs to be provided to ensure a robust response to prevent resurgence of the outbreak. The ongoing humanitarian crisis in Adamawa, Yobe and Borno states, Northeast Nigeria, remains of grave concern, particularly in the context of the COVID-19 outbreak. Mass population movement, of Internally Displaced Persons, returnees and refugees provide a high risk of spread of COVID-19, along with the constant risk of outbreaks of epidemic-prone diseases. A large gap in planned health response funding needs to be addressed, even at this early stage of 2021, in order to continue to provide health services to affected populations. 1 Health Emergency Information and Risk Assessment Health Emergency Information and Risk Assessment 157 3 192 773 80 520 2.5% Coronavirus disease 2019 African region Cases Deaths CFR An average of 6 661 new cases has been reported across the COVID-19 infections have continued to increase among health African Region in the past seven days (12 - 18 April 2021), a workers. Currently, 108 364 (3.4% of all cases) health worker total of 46 625 new cases reported, an 8.2% decrease compared infections have been reported from 46 countries (48.0% of all to the previous week. Twenty-five (54.4%) countries reported countries) in the region. South Africa (54 984, 51.0%), Algeria a fall in new cases, while 19 (41.3%) had an increase in new (11 936, 11.0%) and Ghana (4 763, 4.4%), have recorded the daily cases in the past seven days. Only Lesotho did not show a highest number of health worker infections among countries. significant change in case numbers during this reporting period. Zimbabwe (11.2%), Liberia (11.0%), and Guinea-Bissau Most of the new cases reported this week were from Ethiopia (10.2%), have the highest country specific proportion of health (13 032; 28.0%), South Africa (8 311; 17.8%), Kenya (5 983; worker infections. Only Eritrea has not reported any healthcare 12.8%), Madagascar (3 664; 7.9%) and Cabo Verde (1 461; worker infections. 3.1%). Ethiopia has maintained high new daily case counts, while As of 18 April 2021, the total number of confirmed COVID-19 Kenya is experiencing a third wave of COVID-19. cases on the African continent amounted to over 4.4 million. The region also had 19 (14.3%) countries reporting a decline Total death counts now stand at more than 117 000 deaths in deaths, while 10 (21.7%) had an increase in the past seven (case fatality ratio 2.7%), and more than 3.9 million people have days. Overall, a 4.1% decrease in daily deaths, reported by 32 recovered. COVID-19 vaccination roll-out in the continent is countries, has been observed. South Africa reported the highest varying with the Southern region leading distribution of vaccines. number of deaths (414, 41.5%) followed by 196 (19.7%) from One of the major vaccination challenges is the low number of Ethiopia and 133 (13.3%) in Kenya. vaccine doses available for Africa. Since the declaration of the COVID-19 pandemic (between 25 February 2020 and18 April 2021), the total number of confirmed The weekly distribution of confirmed cases of COVID-19 cases in the WHO African Region is over 3.1 million with more in the WHO African Region by reporting date, than 3.8 million recoveries, giving a recovery rate of 90.5% of 25 February 2020 – 18 April 2021 (n = 3 192 773) confirmed case patients. The death toll has now reached more than 80 000. While the cumulative case fatality ratio has remained constant at 2.4% for the past two months, it is still above the global average of 2.1%. The top five countries reporting the highest case numbers include South Africa (1 566 769 cases, 49.1%), Ethiopia (242 028 cases, 7.3%), Nigeria (164 233 cases, 5.1%), Kenya (151 653 cases, 4.6%) and Algeria (119 642 cases, 3.8%), accounting for 2 244 325 (70.3%) of all cases. The United Republic of Tanzania has reported no new confirmed cases in our database in the last 347 days.