A trip around Africa: Outbreak updates this week
A trip around Africa: Outbreak updates this week
Rubella in Western Cape Province, South Africa
South Africa’s National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) issued an alert this week due to an increase in rubella, or German measles cases in the Western Cape Province seen since the second week of September 2023.
A week-on-week increase in laboratory-confirmed cases has been noted in Khayelitsha sub-district of the City of Cape Town. To date, 19 cases have been identified through serological testing, and all are in the 5-9 year age group.
Fever rash surveillance usually identified at least 800-1000 cases of rubella annually. During the years 2020-2023, fewer than 50 cases of rubella were identified across the entire country, as the non-pharmaceutical interventions that were implemented for the COVID-19 pandemic interrupted rubella transmission.
As the country has not experienced the usual seasonal rubella outbreaks, we are likely to see a large number of cases in 2023, health officials note.
Rift Valley fever in Uganda
In Uganda this year through September 10, a total of 181 suspected cases of Rift Valley fever (RVF) including 53 confirmed and 13 deaths (CFR 7.2%) were reported from eight districts; Kabale, Rubanda, Mbarara and Mbarara city, Isingiro, Bushenyi, Nakaseke, Kazo and Kakumiro districts.
Nakaseke in central Uganda, Mbarara and Kakumiro in western Uganda, were still reporting active RVF outbreaks. The last RVF case from Kakumiro district was confirmed on 4 September 2023.
Rift Valley Fever is mosquito-borne virus that is endemic in parts of Africa. It primarily infects animals like sheep, cattle and goats and it can have an economic impact on a community due to the loss of livestock.
Humans get infected through contact with infected animal blood or organs. Butchering and slaughtering of animals is a primary cause of transmission to humans. Certain occupations are at a higher risk of getting Rift Valley Fever like farmers, herders and veterinarians.
It can also be transmitted to humans through mosquito bites and the bites of blood-sucking flies.
Most cases of Rift Valley Fever are mild and symptoms include fever, headaches and muscle pain. However, a small percentage of people can get serious disease which includes retinitis, encephalitis and a hemorrhagic fever. Fatalities happen in less than 1 percent of those infected.
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Ethiopia malaria outbreak
Ethiopia is experiencing a malaria outbreak since January this year with several regions reporting cases far above the epidemic threshold. From January to 17 September 2023, a total of 2,235,311 cases have been reported (average of 271,117 cases monthly.
Plasmodium falciparum accounts for the majority of cases, some two-thirds.
Oromia region has reported the highest number of cases, 620,131 (28%); however, Gambela region is leading with the highest incidence rate (19, 839 cases/100 000 population).
The ongoing malaria outbreak is adding tension on the already fragile health system exhausted by increased demands for responses to other concurrent outbreaks (measles, cholera, covid-19, dengue fever, etc.) and health consequences of natural hazards.
Measles in Africa
According to the African CDC, Since the beginning of this year, 277,993 ( 20,477 confirmed; 257,516 suspected) and 3,637 deaths (CFR: 1.3 %) of measles were reported from 27 countries: Angola (6,203 cases; 53 deaths), Botswana (13; 0), Burkina Faso (1,671; 2), Burundi (319; 0), Cameroon (8,503; 64), Central African Republic (CAR) (2,873; 0), Chad (8,915; 7), Congo (670; 4), DRC (190,598; 3,187), Ethiopia (17,252, 131), Gabon (3,059; 0), Gambia (208; 0), Ghana (212; 0), Guinea (1,011; 2), Kenya (1,288; 23), Libya (391; 2), Liberia (7,883; 8), Mali (1,575; 2), Mauritania (755; 5), Mozambique (1,342; 0), Niger (1,690; 0), Senegal (4,475; 0), Somalia (9,596; 0), South Africa (843; 0), South Sudan (6,030; 145), Uganda (290; 1) and Zambia (328;1).