This Weekly Bulletin focuses on public health emergencies occurring in the WHO African region. This week’s articles cover:
• Marburg in Equatorial Guinea
• Measles in the United Republic of Tanzania
• COVID-19 in the WHO African region
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 recent events that have been controlled and closed.
Major issues and challenges include:
Since the Marburg Virus Disease (MVD) outbreak was officially declared on 13 February 2023 by the Equatorial Guinea authorities, there is no new confirmed case reported so far.
Outbreak response efforts are being intensified by the Government with support from WHO and partners. National and International experts on haemorrhagic fever outbreaks management have been deployed to scale up response activities including investigation of the source of the outbreak, health workers capacity building, contact tracing, risk communication and community engagement and laboratory capacities building among others. Neighbouring countries are also on alert and have triggered readiness activities for this outbreak.
Since July 2022, the United Republic of Tanzania is facing an increase of measles cases with peaking recently in January. Suspected cases have been reported from all regions of the country which is suffering from low rates of vaccination coverage. The inadequate coverage has resulted from vaccine shortages, limited access to healthcare, and vaccine hesitancy, however response efforts have focused on intensifying vaccination campaigns. The measles outbreak in Tanzania underscores the importance of maintaining high vaccination coverage and strengthening surveillance systems to detect and control outbreaks.
Source: World Health Organization
