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Rapid Field Response to a Cluster of Illnesses and Deaths - Sinoe County, Liberia, April-May, 2017

John Doedeh et al. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep. .

Abstract

On April 25, 2017, the Sinoe County Health Team (CHT) notified the Liberia Ministry of Health (MoH) and the National Public Health Institute of Liberia of an unknown illness among 14 persons that resulted in eight deaths in Sinoe County. On April 26, the National Rapid Response Team and epidemiologists from CDC, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the African Field Epidemiology Network (AFENET) in Liberia were deployed to support the county-led response. Measures were immediately implemented to identify all cases, ascertain the cause of illness, and control the outbreak. Illness was associated with attendance at a funeral event, and laboratory testing confirmed Neisseria meningitidis in biologic specimens from cases. The 2014-2015 Ebola virus disease (Ebola) outbreak in West Africa devastated Liberia's already fragile health system, and it took many months for the country to mount an effective response to control the outbreak. Substantial efforts have been made to strengthen Liberia's health system to prevent, detect, and respond to health threats. The rapid and efficient field response to this outbreak of N. meningitidis resulted in implementation of appropriate steps to prevent a widespread outbreak and reflects improved public health and outbreak response capacity in Liberia.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of Interest: No conflicts of interest were reported.

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
Number of cases of unexplained illnesses and deaths (N = 27) by date of symptom onset and outcome — Sinoe County, Liberia, April–May, 2017
FIGURE 2
FIGURE 2
Unexplained cluster of illnesses and deaths: spot map of cases and location of funeral events — Sinoe County, Liberia, April–May, 2017
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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