Ebola virus disease (EVD) update: to 01JAN2019

Area of the 2018/9 Ebola virus disease hotzone.
Area of the 2018/9 Ebola virus disease hotzone.

This is a brief Ebola virus disease (EVD) update of the latest number of people infected with, vaccinated against disease due to and killed as a result of, Ebola virus in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The data used come from the DRC Ministry of Health.[1]

Today’s data add 6 new cases, bringing the total of probable + confirmed human cases of EVD to 608. 92% of the total have been laboratory confirmed, and 61% (368) of people contributing to that figure of 608 have died because of Ebola virus. The 3 latest deaths occurred in Butembo, Beni, and Oicha health zones (HZs).

Case numbers

Two of the 3 new deaths (Beni and Oicha HZs) occurred in the community, outside of an Ebola treatment centre (ETC). These people cannot or would not seek help for their illness from a specific healthcare facility set up to deal with EVD. They may have infected those caring for them so there may be will probably be more cases as a result of these 2 deaths.

In the graph below, we can see that the new cases, deaths and confirmed cases have all apparently slowed; the curves aren’t rising as steeply. It’s not clear if this is because of a slowing of new cases, case finding or because of the disruptions o recent election violence in the areas.

Confirmed, probable, suspect, fatal and total EVD cases by day.

Vaccination

In the next graph, it’s apparent that EVD vaccination has also suffered big setbacks due to that election-related violence halting efforts in the Goma, Beni, Butembo, Katwa, Komanda and Mabalako HZs. The past week has seen some of the smallest daily vaccination tallies of the outbreak. There have been 2 days with zero new vaccinations; a long way from the 700-800+ per day peak we saw in mid-December.

Vaccinations by report.

References

  1. EPIDEMIOLOGICAL SITUATION IN THE PROVINCES OF NORTH KIVU AND ITURI with data from the epidemiological situation of Ebola Virus Disease as of December 31, 2018
    https://us13.campaign-archive.com/?u=89e5755d2cca4840b1af93176&id=eafcdad12e

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