Despite a dramatic improvement of the epidemiological situation in Guinea in 2015, the elimination of human transmission of the Ebola virus will require sustained efforts over the next few months. ECDC will continue deploying experts to Guinea to contribute to the field work related to surveillance and response activities, under the World Health Organization's Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network (GOARN) umbrella.
This rapid risk assessment concludes that there is currently no indication that these cases represent a significant outbreak of diphtheria among refugees in Europe.
This is the 12th update of the rapid risk assessment on the outbreak of Ebola virus disease in West Africa. It provides the latest figures on cases for the week 14-21 June 2015, re-assesses the risk of importation of Ebola virus disease into the EU and discusses options for risk reduction.
Following an invitation from the Portuguese public health authorities, an ECDC team visited Lisbon to conduct a review of Portugal’s emergency preparedness systems for imported cases of viral haemorrhagic fever (Ebola).
The detection, management and public health response to the first case of diphtheria in Spain in nearly 30 years has highlighted challenges for preparedness against diphtheria in the European Union.
As of 5 April 2015, WHO has reported 25 550 cases of Ebola virus disease in West Africa, including 10 587 deaths. The latest WHO report indicates that the number of new cases continues to decrease.
On March 3 2015, the European Union organised a high-level conference on the Ebola epidemic. The purpose was two-fold: first, to take stock of the ongoing emergency response and adapt it to the evolving situation on the ground, leading to eradication of the disease; second, to plan for the long term and support the recovery and resilience of the affected countries, including the development of their health systems.