scholarly journals An Outbreak of Ebola Virus Disease in the Lassa Fever Zone

2016 ◽  
Vol 214 (suppl 3) ◽  
pp. S110-S121 ◽  
Author(s):  
Augustine Goba ◽  
S. Humarr Khan ◽  
Mbalu Fonnie ◽  
Mohamed Fullah ◽  
Alex Moigboi ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Ebola Virus ◽  
Virus Disease ◽  
Lassa Fever ◽  
Ebola Virus Disease

scholarly journals The deuce-ace of Lassa Fever, Ebola virus disease and COVID-19 simultaneous infections and epidemics in West Africa: clinical and public health implications

2021 ◽  
Vol 49 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nnabueze Darlington Nnaji ◽  
Helen Onyeaka ◽  
Rine Christopher Reuben ◽  
Olivier Uwishema ◽  
Chinasa Valerie Olovo ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Disease Surveillance ◽  
Ebola Virus ◽  
Virus Disease ◽  
Healthcare Systems ◽  
Lassa Fever ◽  
Ebola Virus Disease ◽  
Simultaneous Occurrence ◽  
Population Mobility ◽  
Health Concerns

AbstractGlobally, the prevailing COVID-19 pandemic has caused unprecedented clinical and public health concerns with increasing morbidity and mortality. Unfortunately, the burden of COVID-19 in Africa has been further exacerbated by the simultaneous epidemics of Ebola virus disease (EVD) and Lassa Fever (LF) which has created a huge burden on African healthcare systems. As Africa struggles to contain the spread of the second (and third) waves of the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of reported cases of LF is also increasing, and recently, new outbreaks of EVD. Before the pandemic, many of Africa’s frail healthcare systems were already overburdened due to resource limitations in staffing and infrastructure, and also, multiple endemic tropical diseases. However, the shared epidemiological and pathophysiological features of COVID-19, EVD and LF as well their simultaneous occurrence in Africa may result in misdiagnosis at the onset of infection, an increased possibility of co-infection, and rapid and silent community spread of the virus(es). Other challenges include high population mobility across porous borders, risk of human-to-animal transmission and reverse zoonotic spread, and other public health concerns. This review highlights some major clinical and public health challenges toward responses to the COVID-19 pandemic amidst the deuce-ace of recurrent LF and EVD epidemics in Africa. Applying the One Health approach in infectious disease surveillance and preparedness is essential in mitigating emerging and re-emerging (co-)epidemics in Africa and beyond.

scholarly journals The laboratory health system and its response to the Ebola virus disease outbreak in Liberia

2016 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen B. Kennedy ◽  
Christine L. Wasunna ◽  
John B. Dogba ◽  
Philip Sahr ◽  
Candace B. Eastman ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Health System ◽  
Disaster Response ◽  
Ebola Virus ◽  
Virus Disease ◽  
Diagnostic Testing ◽  
Investment Strategy ◽  
Lassa Fever ◽  
Ebola Virus Disease ◽  
Laboratory System ◽  
Human Resource Capacity

The laboratory system in Liberia has generally been fragmented and uncoordinatedAccordingly, the country’s Ministry of Health established the National Reference Laboratoryto strengthen and sustain laboratory services. However, diagnostic testing services were oftenlimited to clinical tests performed in health facilities, with the functionality of the NationaReference Laboratory restricted to performing testing services for a limited number ofepidemic-prone diseases. The lack of testing capacity in-country for Lassa fever and otherhaemorrhagic fevers affected the response of the country’s health system during the onset ofthe Ebola virus disease (EVD) outbreak. Based on the experiences of the EVD outbreak, effortswere initiated to strengthen the laboratory system and infrastructure, enhance human resourcecapacity, and invest in diagnostic services and public health surveillance to inform admittancetreatment, and discharge decisions. In this article, we briefly describe the pre-EVD laboratorycapability in Liberia, and extensively explore the post-EVD strengthening initiatives to enhancecapacity, mobilise resources and coordinate disaster response with international partners torebuild the laboratory infrastructure in the country. Now that the EVD outbreak has endedadditional initiatives are needed to revise the laboratory strategic and operational plan forpost-EVD relevance, promote continual human resource capacity, institute accreditation andvalidation programmes, and coordinate the investment strategy to strengthen and sustain thepreparedness of the laboratory sector to mitigate future emerging and re-emerging infectiousdiseases.

Lessons learnt from the management of a case of Lassa fever and follow-up of nosocomial primary contacts in Nigeria during Ebola virus disease outbreak in West Africa

2015 ◽  
Vol 20 (11) ◽  
pp. 1424-1430 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael O. Iroezindu ◽  
Uche S. Unigwe ◽  
Celestine C. Okwara ◽  
Gladys A. Ozoh ◽  
Anne C. Ndu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
West Africa ◽  
Ebola Virus ◽  
Virus Disease ◽  
Lassa Fever ◽  
Disease Outbreak ◽  
Ebola Virus Disease ◽  
Lessons Learnt

JOINT ESTIMATION OF THE TRANSMISSIBILITY AND SEVERITY OF EBOLA VIRUS DISEASE IN REAL TIME

2017 ◽  
Vol 25 (04) ◽  
pp. 587-603 ◽  
Author(s):  
YUSUKE ASAI ◽  
HIROSHI NISHIURA
Keyword(s):  
Real Time ◽  
Ebola Virus ◽  
Virus Disease ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Estimation Method ◽  
Case Fatality ◽  
Ascertainment Bias ◽  
Joint Estimation ◽  
Ebola Virus Disease ◽  
Strong Impact

The effective reproduction number [Formula: see text], the average number of secondary cases that are generated by a single primary case at calendar time [Formula: see text], plays a critical role in interpreting the temporal transmission dynamics of an infectious disease epidemic, while the case fatality risk (CFR) is an indispensable measure of the severity of disease. In many instances, [Formula: see text] is estimated using the reported number of cases (i.e., the incidence data), but such report often does not arrive on time, and moreover, the rate of diagnosis could change as a function of time, especially if we handle diseases that involve substantial number of asymptomatic and mild infections and large outbreaks that go beyond the local capacity of reporting. In addition, CFR is well known to be prone to ascertainment bias, often erroneously overestimated. In this paper, we propose a joint estimation method of [Formula: see text] and CFR of Ebola virus disease (EVD), analyzing the early epidemic data of EVD from March to October 2014 and addressing the ascertainment bias in real time. To assess the reliability of the proposed method, coverage probabilities were computed. When ascertainment effort plays a role in interpreting the epidemiological dynamics, it is useful to analyze not only reported (confirmed or suspected) cases, but also the temporal distribution of deceased individuals to avoid any strong impact of time dependent changes in diagnosis and reporting.

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