WHO & Regionals [to 3 May 2014]
http://www.who.int/en/

GPEI Update: Polio this week – As of 30 April 2014
Global Polio Eradication Initiative
Full report: http://www.polioeradication.org/Dataandmonitoring/Poliothisweek.aspx
[Editor’s extract and bolded text]
:: The World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General, Dr Margaret Chan, is convening an Emergency Committee under the International Health Regulations to advise on whether the current developments on the spread of poliovirus constitute a public health emergency of international concern and, if so, whether temporary recommendations are needed to reduce the risk and consequences of international spread. The Committee began consultations on 28 April 2014, and is expected to deliberate for several days.

GIN
April 2014
Oral Cholera Vaccine stockpile campaign amongst Internally Displaced People (IDPs) in South Sudan
Stephen Martin, WHO Headquarters
[Full text]
The first use of the global oral cholera vaccine (OCV) stockpile, created in 2013, under the management of the Inter-national Coordinating Group (ICG) recently deployed 252,000 doses of vaccine to South Sudan.
The mandate for the OCV stockpile is primarily for cholera outbreaks but will also consider vaccine requests for humanitarian crisis response.
As a result of recent conflict in South Sudan (December 2013), population displacement occurred, internally as IDPs and externally as refugees. Many of the IDPs are living in Protection of Civilian (POCs) areas within the United Nations Mission to South Sudan (UNMISS) compounds. Living conditions for the IDPs have deteriorated below international standards, increasing the risk of waterborne diseases including cholera. These conditions are anticipated to deteriorate further with the onset of seasonal rains.
A risk assessment completed by WHO CO concluded that the combination of historical outbreaks, the living conditions and the forthcoming rains placed the IDPs at an increased risk of cholera. At the request of the Ministry of Health, WHO facilitated the deployment of vaccine to the country.
The vaccine arrived in country on 22 February 2014. Over the following 38 days, two implementing partners MedAir and Medecins sans Frontiers have completed 3 campaigns in separate IDP locations, Mingkaman, Tomping and UN House delivering 132,925 doses. The vaccine regime requires two doses given as a single dose two weeks apart. Hygiene messaging was given with the vaccine. In Mingkaman the second dose was co-administered with Meningococcal A conjugate vaccine. Further campaigns are anticipated.
As a new public health intervention to complement established cholera prevention and control measures, greater frequency of use of the vaccine stockpile will increase awareness and acceptability while at the same time providing evidence to demonstrate the full public health potential of this intervention.
http://www.who.int/immunization/GIN_April_2014.pdf?ua=1

WHO: Experts probe Middle-Eastern respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
2 May 2014
Excerpt
A team of experts from WHO started a two-day mission yesterday in Jeddah to assist national health authorities to investigate the recent increase in number of people infected by MERS-CoV.
From mid-March 2014, 111 people have tested positive in the Jeddah area; the biggest single surge in the MERS-CoV outbreak since the new virus was detected in April 2012. Thirty-one persons have died.
As a large proportion of infections in Jeddah occurred in health-care facilities, the WHO team began with analyzing transmission patterns in the city’s main hospitals.
“We need to understand how people got infected in health-care settings, and in the community; we are looking into possible infection routes and whether the virus has changed its ability to more easily infect people,” says Dr Jaouad Mahjour, WHO Team Leader, “but we know that the systematic application of basic infection prevention and control measures in health facilities is key to limiting transmission and protecting health-care workers and other patients.”
Following the confirmation of the first cases, health facilities increased laboratory testing of patients, close contacts and health-care workers and strengthened protective measures. One third of the people tested positive in the recent spate of cases are health-care workers with mild or no symptoms.
“Our priority is to stop the transmission inside the hospital by strengthening infection prevention and control activities,” says Dr Mohammed Al Ghamdi, an Infectious Disease Consultant at the King Fahd Hospital, the city’s main general hospital – where 78 people have tested positive so far. “WHO is helping us in getting answers on transmission routes not only in health facilities, but also in the community.”…
http://www.who.int/features/2014/saudi-arabia-coronavirus/en/