Global Health

WHO/Twitter - A WHO team in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in response to ebola outbreak.

news.un.org - September 25, 2018

A "perfect storm" of active conflict and traumatized communities in Ebola-affected areas of eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) could enable the deadly disease to spread, but there are “no plans” to pull UN workers out of the country despite concerns for their security, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Tuesday.

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CLICK HERE - CIDRAP - Ebola response faces 'grave obstacles' as count hits 150

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CLICK HERE - Sep 25 WHO media briefing

submitted by John Carroll

reliefweb.int - September 21, 2018

A. Situation analysis

Description of the disaster

During Epidemiological Week (EW) 28, the Ministry of Public Health and Epidemiology reported that the Los Pinos Health Center (La Descubierta, municipality) saw an increase in the number of patients with acute diarrhoeal diseases from surrounding communities, which were suspected to be cases of cholera.

In EW 32, the Ministry of Health reported that Vibrio cholerae had been identified in samples collected from residents of La Descubierta municipality in the National Public Health Laboratory. The same report also stated that three confirmed cases of cholera in the municipality had been identified.

Since the outbreak began in EW 28 and up to EW 34, 4 confirmed cases of cholera and 91 suspected cases have been identified in the municipality (please see Figure 1 below), in residents of Los Pinos del Edén, Ángel Feliz, urban area of La Descubierta and Los Bolos.

CLICK HERE - STUDY - PNAS - Seroprevalence, risk factor, and spatial analyses of Zika virus infection after the 2016 epidemic in Managua, Nicaragua

sph.berkeley.edu - August 30, 2018

Almost half of the population of Managua, Nicaragua, is infected with Zika virus, according to a study by UC Berkeley School of Public Health researchers. Eva Harris, professor of Infectious Diseases and Vaccinology at the School of Public Health and director of the UC Berkeley Center for Global Public Health, led the research, which was published August 27 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

“Knowing that 50 percent of the population was infected in only a three-month period during the epidemic is important because it means that another epidemic of that size and ferocity in the near future is very unlikely,” says Harris.

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Torrential rains destroyed about 2,500 houses in En Nahud, West Kordofan, on July 23, 2018 (RD)

dabangasudan.org - August 3, 2018

The heavy rainfall in Sudan in the past weeks has caused the collapse of hundreds of homes and at least 211 school buildings. In eastern Sudan’s Kassala, rains and floods not only destroyed dozens of houses, but also a large number of crops. People in West Kordofan fear the spread of diseases . . .

 . . . People in En Nahud in West Kordofan, where flash floods destroyed a large number of houses on July 23, fear the spread of watery diarrhoea (suspected to be cholera) and other epidemics.

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