Ebola Outbreak in Africa Reaches 78 Cases - Travel Alert Issued by CDC

The Ministry of Health (MoH) of the Democratic Republic of the Congo has reported 78 Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) cases, including 44 deaths, as of August 15, 2018.

Additionally, there are 24 suspected cases currently pending laboratory testing to confirm or exclude EVD, reported the MoH.

Eight new confirmed cases among healthcare workers have been reported, bringing the total number of infected healthcare workers to 10.

These workers were likely exposed in clinics, not Ebola treatment centers, many of which may have been infected before the declaration of the outbreak.

All of the confirmed Ebola exposures and transmission events to date have been linked back to the outbreak epi-center, Mangina, beginning on August 1st. 

The 78 cases reside in five health zones in North Kivu and one health zone in Ituri. The majority of cases (39 confirmed and 21 probable) have been reported from Mangina in Mabalako Health Zone.

Both the MoH and the World Health Organization (WHO) continue to systematically monitor and rapidly investigate all alerts in other provinces and in neighboring countries.

The WHO’s Strategic Advisory Group of Experts (SAGE) working group on Ebola vaccines issued an interim recommendation, which said, “Should an Ebola disease outbreak occur before the candidate vaccine is licensed, SAGE recommended that the rVSV-ZEBOV Ebola vaccine be promptly deployed under the Expanded Access framework, with informed consent and in compliance with Good Clinical Practice.”

Merck’s Ebola vaccine rVSV-ZEBOV is a recombinant, replication-competent vesicular stomatitis virus-based.

In a recent clinical study, 84 percent of rVSV-ZEBOV recipients developed an antibody response. And, one year later, 80 percent of rVSV-ZEBOV recipients had antibody responses.

Merck has submitted the vaccine to WHO’s Emergency Use and Assessment Listing procedure, a mechanism through which experimental vaccines, medicines, and diagnostics can be made available for use prior to formal licensure.

Moreover, Merck has previously committed 300,000 doses of the vaccine available for emergency use.

Separately, on August 17th, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued a Watch Level 1, Practice Usual Precautions, when traveling to the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Points of entry screening have been identified and implemented in the following neighboring countries: Burundi, Central African Republic, Rwanda, South Sudan, Uganda, and Zambia.

The CDC says ‘since there is no approved or widely available vaccine or specific treatment for Ebola, and many people who get the disease die, it is important to take steps to prevent Ebola.’