Ebola Virus Disease among Male and Female Persons in West Africa.
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ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: WHO Ebola Response Team
PROVIDER: S-EPMC4812164 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Jan
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
Publications
Ebola Virus Disease among Male and Female Persons in West Africa.
Agua-Agum Junerlyn J Ariyarajah Archchun A Blake Isobel M IM Cori Anne A Donnelly Christl A CA Dorigatti Ilaria I Dye Christopher C Eckmanns Tim T Ferguson Neil M NM Fraser Christophe C Garske Tini T Hinsley Wes W Jombart Thibaut T Mills Harriet L HL Nedjati-Gilani Gemma G Newton Emily E Nouvellet Pierre P Perkins Devin D Riley Steven S Schumacher Dirk D Shah Anita A Thomas Lisa J LJ Van Kerkhove Maria D MD
The New England journal of medicine 20160101 1
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Project description:The variety of factors that contributed to the initial undetected spread of Ebola virus disease in West Africa during 2013-2016 and the difficulty controlling the outbreak once the etiology was identified highlight priorities for disease prevention, detection, and response. These factors include occurrence in a region recovering from civil instability and lacking experience with Ebola response; inadequate surveillance, recognition of suspected cases, and Ebola diagnosis; mobile populations and extensive urban transmission; and the community's insufficient general understanding about the disease. The magnitude of the outbreak was not attributable to a substantial change of the virus. Continued efforts during the outbreak and in preparation for future outbreak response should involve identifying the reservoir, improving in-country detection and response capacity, conducting survivor studies and supporting survivors, engaging in culturally appropriate public education and risk communication, building productive interagency relationships, and continuing support for basic research.
| S-EPMC4880067 | biostudies-literature
Project description:This study utilized modeling and simulation to examine the effectiveness of current and potential future COVID-19 response interventions in the West African countries of Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone. A comparison between simulations can highlight which interventions could have an effect on the pandemic in these countries. An extended compartmental model was used to run simulations incorporating multiple vaccination strategies and non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs). In addition to the customary categories of susceptible, exposed, infected, and recovered (SEIR) compartments, this COVID-19 model incorporated early and late disease states, isolation, treatment, and death. Lessons learned from the 2014-2016 Ebola virus disease outbreak-especially the optimization of each country's resource allocation-were incorporated in the presented models. For each country, models were calibrated to an estimated number of infections based on actual reported cases and deaths. Simulations were run to test the potential future effects of vaccination and NPIs. Multiple levels of vaccination were considered, based on announced vaccine allocation plans and notional scenarios. Increased vaccination combined with NPI mitigation strategies resulted in thousands of fewer COVID-19 infections in each country. This study demonstrates the importance of increased vaccinations. The levels of vaccination in this study would require substantial increases in vaccination supplies obtained through national purchases or international aid. While this study does not aim to develop a model that predicts the future, it can provide useful information for decision-makers in low- and middle-income nations. Such information can be used to prioritize and optimize limited available resources for targeted interventions that will have the greatest impact on COVID-19 pandemic response.
| S-EPMC8537256 | biostudies-literature
Project description:To explain the spread of the 2014 Ebola epidemic in West Africa, and thus help with response planning, we analyzed publicly available data. We found that the risk for infection in an area can be predicted by case counts, population data, and distances between affected and nonaffected areas.
| S-EPMC4344291 | biostudies-literature
Project description:The west Africa Ebola virus disease (EVD) epidemic was extraordinary in scale. Now that the epidemic has ended, it is a relevant time to examine published studies with direct relevance to clinical care and, more broadly, to examine the implications of the clinical research response mounted. Clinically relevant research includes literature detailing risk factors for and clinical manifestations of EVD, laboratory and other investigation findings in patients, experimental vaccine and therapeutic clinical trials, and analyses of survivor syndrome. In this Review, we discuss new insights from patient-oriented research completed during the west Africa epidemic, identify ongoing knowledge gaps, and suggest priorities for future research.
| S-EPMC5856335 | biostudies-literature
Project description:The 2013-2016 West Africa Ebola virus disease epidemic was notable for its scope, scale, and complexity. This briefing presents a series of distinguishing epidemiological features that set this outbreak apart. Compared to one concurrent and 23 previous outbreaks of the disease over 40 years, this was the only occurrence of Ebola virus disease involving multiple nations and qualifying as a pandemic. Across multiple measures of magnitude, the 2013-2016 outbreak was accurately described using superlatives: largest and deadliest in terms of numbers of cases and fatalities; longest in duration; and most widely dispersed geographically, with outbreak-associated cases occurring in 10 nations. In contrast, the case-fatality rate was much lower for the 2013-2016 outbreak compared to the other 24 outbreaks. A population of particular interest for ongoing monitoring and public health surveillance is comprised of more than 17,000 "survivors," Ebola patients who successfully recovered from their illness. The daunting challenges posed by this outbreak were met by an intensive international public health response. The near-exponential rate of increase of incident Ebola cases during mid-2014 was successfully slowed, reversed, and finally halted through the application of multiple disease containment and intervention strategies.
| S-EPMC5314891 | biostudies-literature
Project description:BackgroundEbola Virus Disease (EVD) is a highly infectious disease that has produced over 25,000 cases in the past 50 years. While many past outbreaks resulted in relatively few cases, the 2014 outbreak in West Africa was the most deadly occurrence of EVD to date, producing over 15,000 confirmed cases.ObjectiveIn this study, we investigated population level predictors of EVD risk at the regional level in Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Guinea.MethodsSpatial and descriptive analyses were conducted to assess distribution of EVD cases. Choropleth maps showing the spatial distribution of EVD risk across the study area were generated in ArcGIS. Poisson and negative binomial models were then used to investigate population and regional predictors of EVD risk.ResultsResults indicated that the risk of EVD was significantly lower in areas with higher proportions of: (a) the population living in urban areas, (b) households with a low quality or no toilets, and (c) married men working in blue collar jobs. However, risk of EVD was significantly higher in areas with high mean years of education.ConclusionsThe identified significant predictors of high risk were associated with areas with higher levels of urbanization. This may be due to higher population densities in the more urban centers and hence higher potential of infectious contact. However, there is need to better understand the role of urbanization and individual contact structure in an Ebola outbreak. We discuss shortcomings in available data and emphasize the need to consider spatial scale in future data collection and epidemiological studies.
| S-EPMC6250096 | biostudies-literature
Project description:BackgroundReliable data are lacking on pregnancy outcomes during Ebola virus disease (EVD) epidemics. We aimed to characterize symptoms and outcomes among pregnant women admitted to Ebola treatment units (ETUs) with suspected and confirmed EVD to better inform obstetric management.MethodsWe analyzed a retrospective cohort of reproductive-aged women presenting to 5 West African ETUs from September 2014 to September 2015. We compared clinical symptoms, risk of EVD diagnosis, and mortality between pregnant and nonpregnant women.ResultsOf 729 reproductive-aged women admitted to study ETUs, 44 (6%) reported pregnancy. Thirteen of 44 pregnant women (30%) tested EVD positive; 6 of 13 (46%) died. Pregnant women were less likely than nonpregnant women to report anorexia, asthenia, diarrhea, fever, myalgias/arthralgias, nausea, or vomiting (P < .05) at admission. Pregnant women with suspected EVD had the same risk, however, of laboratory-confirmed EVD (30% vs 24%, P = .38). While pregnant women with confirmed EVD had similar Ebola viral loads on presentation to nonpregnant women, as measured by initial cycle threshold (26.4 vs 23.2, P = .16), they were less likely to have myalgias/arthralgias (P< .001) and vomiting (P = .02). Both all-cause mortality (14% vs 19%, P = .39) and EVD-specific mortality (46% vs 54%, P = .60) were not significantly different between pregnant and nonpregnant women. Two neonates born live in the ETU died within 8 days.ConclusionsWe find no evidence to support a difference in the risk of death between pregnant women with suspected or confirmed EVD compared to nonpregnant women. Limited data suggest poor fetal and neonatal outcomes in EVD-affected pregnancies.
| S-EPMC5850452 | biostudies-literature
Project description:The 2013-2016 West Africa Ebola virus disease pandemic was the largest, longest, deadliest, and most geographically expansive outbreak in the 40-year interval since Ebola was first identified. Fear-related behaviors played an important role in shaping the outbreak. Fear-related behaviors are defined as "individual or collective behaviors and actions initiated in response to fear reactions that are triggered by a perceived threat or actual exposure to a potentially traumatizing event. FRBs modify the future risk of harm." This review examines how fear-related behaviors were implicated in (1) accelerating the spread of Ebola, (2) impeding the utilization of life-saving Ebola treatment, (3) curtailing the availability of medical services for treatable conditions, (4) increasing the risks for new-onset psychological distress and psychiatric disorders, and (5) amplifying the downstream cascades of social problems. Fear-related behaviors are identified for each of these outcomes. Particularly notable are behaviors such as treating Ebola patients in home or private clinic settings, the "laying of hands" on Ebola-infected individuals to perform faith-based healing, observing hands-on funeral and burial customs, foregoing available life-saving treatment, and stigmatizing Ebola survivors and health professionals. Future directions include modeling the onset, operation, and perpetuation of fear-related behaviors and devising strategies to redirect behavioral responses to mass threats in a manner that reduces risks and promotes resilience.
| S-EPMC5241909 | biostudies-literature
Project description:BackgroundOn March 23, 2014, the World Health Organization (WHO) was notified of an outbreak of Ebola virus disease (EVD) in Guinea. On August 8, the WHO declared the epidemic to be a "public health emergency of international concern."MethodsBy September 14, 2014, a total of 4507 probable and confirmed cases, including 2296 deaths from EVD (Zaire species) had been reported from five countries in West Africa--Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria, Senegal, and Sierra Leone. We analyzed a detailed subset of data on 3343 confirmed and 667 probable Ebola cases collected in Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria, and Sierra Leone as of September 14.ResultsThe majority of patients are 15 to 44 years of age (49.9% male), and we estimate that the case fatality rate is 70.8% (95% confidence interval [CI], 69 to 73) among persons with known clinical outcome of infection. The course of infection, including signs and symptoms, incubation period (11.4 days), and serial interval (15.3 days), is similar to that reported in previous outbreaks of EVD. On the basis of the initial periods of exponential growth, the estimated basic reproduction numbers (R0 ) are 1.71 (95% CI, 1.44 to 2.01) for Guinea, 1.83 (95% CI, 1.72 to 1.94) for Liberia, and 2.02 (95% CI, 1.79 to 2.26) for Sierra Leone. The estimated current reproduction numbers (R) are 1.81 (95% CI, 1.60 to 2.03) for Guinea, 1.51 (95% CI, 1.41 to 1.60) for Liberia, and 1.38 (95% CI, 1.27 to 1.51) for Sierra Leone; the corresponding doubling times are 15.7 days (95% CI, 12.9 to 20.3) for Guinea, 23.6 days (95% CI, 20.2 to 28.2) for Liberia, and 30.2 days (95% CI, 23.6 to 42.3) for Sierra Leone. Assuming no change in the control measures for this epidemic, by November 2, 2014, the cumulative reported numbers of confirmed and probable cases are predicted to be 5740 in Guinea, 9890 in Liberia, and 5000 in Sierra Leone, exceeding 20,000 in total.ConclusionsThese data indicate that without drastic improvements in control measures, the numbers of cases of and deaths from EVD are expected to continue increasing from hundreds to thousands per week in the coming months.
| S-EPMC4235004 | biostudies-literature