Highlights
No confirmed cases of Ebola virus disease (EVD) were reported in the two weeks to 13 December. In Liberia, all 166 contacts, including 15 high-risk contacts associated with the recent cluster of 3 confirmed cases reported in Greater Monrovia completed their 21-day follow-up period on 11 December.
In Guinea, no prefecture has active transmission and no known contact is being followed in the entire country
In Sierra Leone, Kenema and Western Area districts have been chosen as pilot areas for the transfer of Ebola coordination from the District Ebola Response Centre (DERC) to the District Health Management Teams (DHMT) under the Ministry of Health and Sanitation (MoHS). At the national level, the coordination is being transferred from the National Ebola Response Centre (NERC) to the Office of National Security (ONS) and the Ministry of Health and Sanitation (MoHS). The transfer will be effective as of 31 December Three core areas of responsibilities to be transferred are fleet management, asset transfer and hazard payment systems. A similar transition for the other 12 districts is ongoing and will be completed in the course of December 2015.
The Inter-Agency Collaboration on Ebola (ICE) held its last board meeting on 17 December to discuss the transition of leadership and coordination of Ebola-related activities from the ICE to UN regional and country teams. The leadership and coordination at the country-level will be transferred to the Resident Coordinators, while at the regional level responsibility will go to the regional team and the Assistant Administrator and Director of UNDP’s Regional Bureau for Africa. The transfer of the overall responsibility will be completed by the 31 December.
Epidemiological status
On 29 December, Guinea will have completed the 42 day follow-up period if no new confirmed cases are reported. It will then enter a 90-day period of enhanced surveillance, which will end on March 27, if no further cases are identified.
If Guinea completes its 42 day follow-up on December 29 without another confirmed case identified, it will indicate that all three countries have interrupted the initial chains of human-to-human transmission. Nonetheless, on-going vigilance will be required across the three countries to manage the residual risk of potential re-emergence of Ebola virus disease, e.g. from persistence of virus in body fluids in a small proportion of the survivor population. Measures are being put in place to strengthen national capacities to prevent, detect and respond to re-emergence of the disease. In Liberia, 210 people have so far been vaccinated in the ring vaccination campaign. The initial target was 900 people, but the number is being revised as the primary contacts are no longer being followed up after having completed the 21-day observation period.
Human-to-human transmission linked to the recent cluster of cases in Liberia will end on 14 January 2016, 42 days after the two most-recent cases received a second consecutive negative test for Ebola virus, if no further cases are reported.
Sierra Leone is currently observing 90-day period of enhanced surveillance which will end on 5 February 2016.