Growing concern after 149 ongoing disease outbreaks in Africa

AT LEAST 149 ongoing disease outbreaks and health emergencies were ongoing in Africa due to humanitarian crises in the region.

This was reported by the World Health Organisation Africa (WHO) at the weekend.

Over the past month, six new outbreaks were reported, including measles in South Africa and cholera in Kenya.

WHO Africa and its partners said they were supporting governments to respond to 128 disease outbreaks.

The organisation was also supporting responses to 21 humanitarian crises triggered by conflict and/or natural disasters.

In the past month, nine outbreaks were controlled and declared over.

These include influenza A in Kenya and anthrax in Sierra Leone.

In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, cholera continues to plague communities.

“More than 14 African countries have reported cholera cases since January 2022. In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, this acute diarrhoeal disease is endemic in several provinces.

“Since the beginning of the year, more than 12 300 suspected cases have been reported, including 222 deaths, in 17 of the country's 26 provinces,” WHO Africa said.

Support to Uganda's evolving Ebola outbreak has also been stepped-up, with the first doses of candidate vaccines against the Sudan ebola virus expected to arrive in Uganda in the coming days.

“A WHO committee of external experts has evaluated three candidate vaccines and agreed that they all be deployed to Uganda for a clinical trial against the Sudan ebolavirus—one of the six species of the Ebolavirus genus. “Unlike the Zaire ebolavirus which has sparked most of the recent outbreaks, there are no approved vaccines or therapeutics for the Sudan ebolavirus.

“The aim of the randomized trial is to evaluate potentially efficacious candidate vaccines, and to possibly contribute to ending the ongoing outbreak and protect populations at risk in the future. The trial is the result of a collaborative effort, coordinated by WHO with developers, academic institutions, countries' sponsoring the production of the vaccine doses, regulatory authorities, other experts and the government of Uganda.

In South Africa, WHO Africa noted the areas that were critical in the country's pandemic response.

These included strengthened outbreak control coordination, a decentralized approach which entailed deploying epidemiologists to the districts, tailoring response in hotspots, generating local epidemiological data to monitor resurgence as well as rolling out vaccinations at the grassroots.

“The efforts paid off, with cases, admissions, and deaths declining over the five pandemic waves.

“The expert team comprised epidemiologists, experts in infection prevention and control, vaccination, clinical care, data management, risk communication and community engagement,” WHO Africa said.