Ebola virus disease: are you up to date?

2019 ◽  
Vol 30 (12) ◽  
pp. 572-577
Author(s):  
Daniel Beese ◽  
Gail Beckett

While the risk of seeing cases of Ebola in general practice in the UK remains low, Daniel Beese and Gail Beckett explain the importance of keeping up to date with what to do in light of the recent disease outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo In July 2019, an outbreak of Ebola in the Democratic Republic of Congo was declared a Public Health Emergency of International Concern by the World Health Organization. During the last major outbreak, only a few patients with Ebola were cared for by the NHS, but media interest was high and public anxiety widespread. The fear of infection saw much time and effort put into developing a plethora of guidance, policies and protocols to prevent and control any potential risk of spread. As it is now 4 years since the last outbreak, it is an opportune time to review response arrangements.

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Serge ZIGABE ◽  
Etienne Kajibwami ◽  
Guy-Quesney Mateso ◽  
Benjamin Ntaligeza

Abstract COVID-19 started as a cluster of pneumonia cases in Wuhan City, the Province of Hubei, China, in December 2019. It spread to many regions of China, outside of China and was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO) on March 11th, 2020. Initially Africa had no case and now the continent is reporting an increasing number of confirmed cases in an exponential manner (1,2).


Author(s):  
Peter Davis Sumo

The purpose of this paper is to present a science-based narrative of the impact of the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) on the supply chains of the major commodities of Liberia. Scientific literatures from appropriate journals, newspapers, trade data of applicable ministries and governmental agencies, data on Ebola from websites of World Health Organization (WHO), Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), Center for Disease and Control and Prevention (CDC), World Bank, the International Monetary Funds (IMF) and other relevant institutions are used extensively while also employing a market chain approach to represent the overall supply chains of these products. The review reveals, among others, the significant disruption to the flow of goods and the decrease in output of the main export commodities of Liberia. It also shows a fall in the real GDP growth rate of the Mano River Basin (MRB) countries during the Ebola years. The paper identifies that the specific mechanisms through which the supply chains were disrupted were as a result of fear and government’s regulation. Additionally, it provides a practical conduit for the diversification of the rubber industry. Given the complex web of supply chains of just a single product, this effort is in no way an exhaustive review on the impact of the EVD on supply chains of commodities dealt with herein, let alone the overall impact of EVD on the country as a whole. Obviously, this review is also limited in terms of scope and extent. This review is a useful introduction to investigators who might want to commit to research in this particular aspect of the impact of the EVD vis-a-vis its impact on supply chains in Liberia or on a broader level, the MRB Countries.


2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (Supplement_5) ◽  
Author(s):  
A Amorim Tomaz ◽  
F I P M Bastos ◽  
R S Santos ◽  
M Mossoko

Abstract The world has seen outbreaks of emergency and re-emergency of infectious diseases very often in the past years, many of them with devastating consequences for low-income countries with fragile or nonexistent health system, covid-19 being by now the last of a long series of global challenges. Although it is a huge challenge for the whole world, one country is facing it together with a current Ebola outbreak plus violence and some other diseases. The Democratic Republic of Congo is facing the immediate effects of both epidemics as illness and death, however its consequences at the political and economic level are usually more complex and may be protracted. Following the debate on why poor countries remain poor, it is maybe useful to rethink poverty and inequality keeping in mind Amartya Sen's seminal concepts: development must comprise freedom and respect for human rights and institutions at the price of fostering a vicious circle of (re)emerging diseases and structural violence. Ebola epidemics, that usually face some challenges when they happen alone, now together with malaria, measles, plague and covid, on top of violence in some areas, the disease sees its protocols harmed: for covid the orientation is to stay isolated, for Ebola the response includes tracking contacts. What means coming with a team to field to do the mapping in the middle of a confinement. The surveillance for such many epidemics on top of violence and humanitarian crisis makes the Democratic Republic of Congo one of the most worrying countries in terms of consequences of the Covid outbreak. Key messages Study of the association between the Covid, Ebola virus disease outbreak and the at-risk population living in the conflict zone in Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. The study presents the difficulties that the population encountered in the face of restrictions imposed by armed groups to reach health services during an Ebola outbreak, in a conflict zone.


Author(s):  
Justus Nsio ◽  
Jimmy Kapetshi ◽  
Sheila Makiala ◽  
Frederic Raymond ◽  
Gaston Tshapenda ◽  
...  

2019 ◽  
Vol 26 (7) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ashleigh R Tuite ◽  
Alexander G Watts ◽  
Kamran Khan ◽  
Isaac I Bogoch

Abstract Background The 2018–2019 Ebola virus disease (EVD) outbreak in North Kivu and Ituri provinces, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), continues to spread. The recent discovery of cases in Uganda and in Goma, a major city in the eastern DRC, raises concern for potential EVD transmission in distant locales via commercial air travel. Methods We examined air travel patterns from the affected region with itinerary-level data from the International Air Transport Association for the year 2018 between July and October, inclusive. We focused on three scenarios: (i) travel from Beni airport, (ii) travel from Beni, Goma and Bunia airports and (iii) travel from Beni, Goma and Bunia, and Kigali airports. We evaluated country-level Infectious Disease Vulnerability Index (IDVI) scores for traveller destinations. Results There were 2255 commercial air passengers departing from Beni Airport during the specified time frame, all with domestic destinations, and 55% of which were to Goma. A total of 29 777 passengers travelled from Beni, Bunia and Goma airports during this time frame, with most travel (94.6%) departing from Goma Airport. A total of 72.4% of passengers’ final destination from these three airports were within the DRC, primarily to Kinshasa. There were 166 281 outbound passengers from Beni, Bunia, Goma and Kigali airports with the majority (82.1%) of passengers departing from Kigali. The most frequent destinations from these airports were Nairobi, Kinshasa and Entebbe. Eight of the 10 destinations with greatest passenger volumes are to countries with IDVI scores less than 0.4. Conclusion There is little commercial airline connectivity from the current EVD-affected area; however, larger cities in DRC and throughout East Africa should be aware of the low potential for EVD importation through this route. Most countries at greatest risk for EVD importation have limited capacity to manage these cases.


2014 ◽  
Vol 371 (22) ◽  
pp. 2083-2091 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gaël D. Maganga ◽  
Jimmy Kapetshi ◽  
Nicolas Berthet ◽  
Benoît Kebela Ilunga ◽  
Felix Kabange ◽  
...  

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