Schlagwort: outbreak news

Pakistan Health Authorities have reported an ongoing outbreak of extensively drug resistant (XDR) typhoid fever that began in the Hyderabad district of Sindh province in November 2016. An increasing trend of typhoid fever cases caused by antimicrobial resistant (AMR) strains of Salmonella enterica serovar Typhi (or S. Typhi) poses a notable public health concern. In May 2018, the case definitions for non-resistant, multi-drug resistant (MDR) and XDR typhoid fever were formally agreed by the Regional Disease Surveillance and Response Unit (RDSRU) in Karachi, following a review by an expert group of epidemiologists, clinicians and microbiologists from Pakistan. All typhoid fever cases reported from 2016 to 2018 were reviewed and classified according to these case definitions (see Table 1).

From 1 November 2016 through 9 December 2018, 5 274 cases of XDR typhoid out of 8 188 typhoid fever cases were reported by the Provincial Disease Surveillance and Response Unit (PDSRU) in Sindh province, Pakistan. Sixty-nine percent of cases were reported in Karachi (the capital city), 27% in Hyderabad district, and 4% in other districts in the province (Table 2). The circulating XDR strain of S. Typhi haplotype 58 was resistant to first and second-line antibiotics as well as third generation cephalosporins. Informal reports of XDR typhoid cases occurring in other parts of Pakistan were made and required further verification.

Responding to the Ebola virus disease (EVD) outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo continues to be a complex challenge.

On 22 November 2018, the World Health Organization (WHO) was informed by Dutch authorities of a laboratory-confirmed case of yellow fever. The case-patient is a 26 year-old male who visited Gambia from 3 through 17 November 2018, with a three day trip to Senegal from 12 through 14 November. He had no history of vaccination for yellow fever prior to the trip. On 18 November 2018, the case-patient developed symptoms including fever, nausea and vomiting. On19 November 2018 he was hospitalized with symptoms of acute liver failure and he is still in hospital as of 10 December.

The International Health Regulations National Focal Point (IHR NFP) from the Netherlands has notified counterparts in Gambia and Senegal about the case, and about the exact locations visited by the patient. There have been no other reports of confirmed yellow fever cases from Senegal, Gambia or The Netherlands at this time.

From July through September 2018, six cases of circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus type 2 (cVDPV2) were reported from Niger, genetically linked to a cVDPV2 case in Jigawa and Katsina States, Nigeria. The virus was isolated from children with acute flaccid paralysis (AFP) from Zinder region, located in the south of Niger and on the border with Nigeria, with dates of onset of paralysis ranging from 18 July through 16 September 2018. This outbreak has also affected Jigawa, Katsina, Yobe, Gombe, and Borno states in Nigeria, with 17 cases reported since April 2018.

On 31 May 2018, the State Ministry of Health (SMOH) of the Red Sea State in Sudan reported four suspected cases of chikungunya fever from Swakin locality, in Red Sea State. Among the signs and symptoms were sudden onset of fever, headache, joint pain and swelling, muscle pain and/or inability to walk.

The first suspected case of chikungunya in the neighboring Kassala State was reported on 8 August 2018, in a male travelling from the Red Sea State. Since then cases have been reported in three localities of the State (Kassala, West Kassala and Rural Kassala). On 10 August, among 24 collected blood samples, 22 samples tested positive for chikungunya by PCR and ELISA at the National Public Health Laboratory (NPHL) in Khartoum. On 9 September, an additional 100 samples were collected and pooled in batches of ten: 50% of pools tested positive for mixed chikungunya and dengue viruses, and all pools were positive for chikungunya virus.