This Weekly Bulletin focuses on selected acute public health emergencies occurring in the WHO African Region. The WHO Health Emergencies Programme is currently monitoring 53 events in the region. This week’s edition covers key new and ongoing events, including:
- Suspected viral haemorrhagic fever in South Sudan
- Meningitis in Nigeria
- Necrotizing fasciitis in São Tomé and Príncipe
- Humanitarian crisis in South Sudan
For each of these events, a brief description followed by public health measures 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 public health events currently being monitored in the region, as well as events that have recently been closed.
Major challenges include:
- The outbreak of suspected viral haemorrhagic fever in South Sudan is concerning and more information on suspected cases is critical to inform response efforts. Strengthened surveillance and enhancement of case management capacity including infection prevention and control are urgently needed to facilitate rapid detection and treatment of future suspected cases. In addition, the shipment of samples to a reference laboratory in the region is required for confirmation of the event.
- Despite enhanced preparedness measures, a new outbreak of meningitis has occurred in Nigeria and requires adequate control measures. Considerable challenges to the effective implementation of national and state response plans remain, and national and international partners will need to quickly scale up their interventions to effectively control the outbreak and reduce associated mortality.
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