SUMMARY
- A total of 128 new confirmed cases of Ebola virus disease (EVD) were reported in the week to 15 February. Guinea reported 52 new confirmed cases – a decrease from the previous week, and the first week-to-week decline since January 25. Transmission remains widespread in Sierra Leone, with 74 new confirmed cases, and is most intense in the capital, Freetown, which reported 45 confirmed cases. Liberia reported 2 new confirmed cases in the 4 days to 12 February.
- Engaging effectively with communities has been one of the keys to successfully driving cases to zero in many parts of Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone, but continues to present a challenge in several areas. Each of the three countries reported an increase in security incidents related to the Ebola response compared with the previous week. In Guinea and Sierra Leone, 39 and 45 unsafe burials were reported, respectively, in the week to 15 February, and over 40 new confirmed cases were identified only when testing was carried out on samples from individuals after they died in the community, away from treatment facilities. Not only have these individuals not received potentially life-saving treatment, but other members of the community have been put at greater risk of exposure to EVD than they would have been had those individuals been isolated when they first showed symptoms. Contact tracing also relies on the cooperation of affected communities; when this cooperation is not secured, the vital task of tracking chains of transmission becomes much more difficult. Recent success in engaging with communities in the eastern Guinean prefecture of Lola enabled responders to trace cases and contacts related to an unsafe burial, and rapidly bring a localised outbreak under control. Similar breakthroughs must now be made in the remaining areas of transmission.
- Most of the new confirmed cases reported by Guinea were in the capital, Conakry (13 confirmed cases), and the western prefecture of Forecariah (24 confirmed cases). The north Guinean prefecture of Mali, which borders Senegal, reported 2 new confirmed cases.
- A mission to strengthen surveillance in the border areas of Côte d’Ivoire is ongoing. Further preparedness missions are planned for Guinea Bissau, Mali, Senegal later this month to strengthen cross-border surveillance.
- A total of 2 confirmed cases were reported from Liberia. All of the cases originated from the same area of Montserrado county, linked to a single chain of transmission.
- Following the steep decline in case incidence in Sierra Leone from December until the end of January, incidence has now stabilized. A total of 74 cases were reported in the week to 15 February, compared with 76 confirmed cases in the previous week.
- The case fatality rate among hospitalized cases (calculated from all confirmed hospitalized cases with a reported definitive outcome) remains high, at between 53% and 64% in the 3 affected countries.
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