Dear Colleagues,
According to the World Health Organization (WHO) the death toll in the Ebola epidemic has risen to 5,420 deaths out of 15,145 cases reported through 16 November. The figures represent an increase of 243 deaths and 732 cases since 11 November. Cases are still believed to be under-reported. Although intense transmission remains in several key districts in Guinea and Liberia, there is continued evidence to indicate that case incidence is no longer increasing nationally in either country.
This is not the case in Sierra Leone, where transmission is intense throughout the north and west, and 533 new cases were confirmed in the week. As of today, Mali has officially reported a total of 6 cases of EVD, with 5 deaths. Five of the cases are linked, 3 directly and 2 indirectly, to the country’s second chain of transmission that involved an Imam from Guinea who was treated at the Pasteur Clinic in Bamako. A massive effort is currently under way to identify all resulting chains of transmission, monitor contacts, and prevent the outbreak from growing larger. As of 16 November, a total of 384 contacts have been identified and are under follow-up; 96 contacts are reported to be health care workers. About 300 contacts are also being traced in Guinea after thousands of mourners attended the imam’s funeral in the village of Kourémalé.
The United States and France have both extended their Ebola airport screening procedures to cover passengers arriving from Mali. In the U.S., all travelers whose trip originated in Mali will now be subject to a 21-day monitoring and movement program which includes twice-daily temperature and symptom checks in coordination with public health authorities.
In the United States, there have been four cases and 1 death. All contacts in the U.S. have completed the 21-day follow-up period. Separately, a surgeon from Sierra Leone died Monday while being treated in a biocontainment unit at a Nebraska hospital. The doctor had advanced symptoms when he arrived at the hospital and was the 10th patient in the U.S. to receive treatment for Ebola, and the second to die of the disease. The Democratic Republic of Congo has declared its three-month Ebola outbreak officially over after 42 days without recording a new case of the disease. Twenty-eight days have passed since Spain’s only Ebola patient tested negative twice and was discharged from hospital.
The response to the EVD outbreak continues to grow in the three most affected countries. Over 1,000 beds are now operational in 18 Ebola Treatment Centers. While the capacity to isolate patients and prevent further transmission of the disease is growing, it is still not sufficient. The latest WHO report indicates that while 72% of all reported patients with EVD were isolated in Guinea between 20 October and 9 November, only 20% in Liberia and 13% in Sierra Leone were isolated during the same period.
Please email David Rolph, our director of Global Security, david_rolph@abtassoc.com and cc Sarah Dedic, sarah_dedic@abtassoc.com with any questions you have about the status of the outbreak.
Best,
Jay
Jay L. Knott | Executive Vice President, Chief Business Officer | Abt Associates
O: 301-347-5896| F: 301-828-9739 | www.abtassociates.com
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