A Historical Review of Ebola Outbreaks

Aurelie, Kasangye Kangoy; Guy, Mutangala Muloye; FuambaBona, Ngoyi; Charles, Kaya Mulumbati; Avevor, Patrick Mawupemor; LiShixue,

doi:10.5772/intechopen.72660

Cited by 12 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 37 publications

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“…Frequent large outbreaks have since been reported from Gabon, DRC, Uganda, Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Nigeria 1 5–7. Isolated EVD outbreaks have been reported in South Africa, USA, UK and Italy 8. There has been an increase in EVD outbreaks in Africa, probably because of increased contact of humans with wildlife due to extensive deforestation, hunting and mining,1 9 as well as improved communications 10 11…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Forty-two years of responding to Ebola virus outbreaks in Sub-Saharan Africa: a review

et al. 2020

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IntroductionEbola virus disease (EVD) is one of the deadliest haemorrhagic fevers affecting humans and non-human primates. Thirty-four outbreaks have been reported in Africa since it was first recognised in 1976. This review analysed 42 years of EVD outbreaks and identified various challenges and opportunities for its control and prevention in Sub-Saharan Africa.MethodsA literature search of relevant articles on EVD was done in PubMed, Web of Science and Google Scholar electronic databases. Articles published from 1976 to 2019 were reviewed to document reports of EVD outbreaks in Sub-Saharan Africa. Data extraction focused on the year of outbreak, geographical spread, virus strain involved, number of cases and deaths, case fatality, and outbreak management. Analyses of trends in case fatality were performed by calculating ORs between times.ResultsIn the past four decades, a total of 34 EVD outbreaks affecting 34 356 cases and causing 14 823 deaths were reported in 11 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. The overall case fatality rate (95% CI) was 66% (62 to 71) and did not change substantially over time (OR in 2019 vs 1976=1.6 (95% CI 1.5 to 1.8), p<0.001). The results of this review indicate that challenges to control EVD outbreaks are related to epidemiological, sociocultural and health system factors.ConclusionsSub-Saharan Africa continues to face considerable challenges in EVD control, whereby there are no significant changes in case fatality rates observed during the past four decades. Socioeconomic and cultural processes need to be critically considered to shape the community behaviours that lead to exposure to EVD outbreaks. Areas that need to be addressed to prevent future EVD outbreaks include a broad-based, one-health approach, effective communication, social mobilisation, and strengthening of the health systems.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Forty-two years of responding to Ebola virus outbreaks in Sub-Saharan Africa: a review

et al. 2020

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“…The largest outbreak lasted from 2014 to 2016 in West Africa and resulted in 28,646 cases and 11,323 deaths [30]. At the time of this study, there was an ongoing outbreak of Ebola in DRC with increasing number of cases [31] and it extended to Uganda [32].To minimize the chances of an outbreak in areas at risk such as the Baka community, knowledge of factors that could predispose inhabitants to infection is necessary. WHO aims to prevent Ebola outbreaks by maintaining surveillance for EVD and supporting at-risk countries to develop preparedness plan.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…An adapted Threat Capability Basic Risk Assessment Guide [31] was used to assess the level of risk involved in consuming bush meat. This guide had four different levels of assessment: very high, high, moderate and low.…”

Section: Sample Collection and Analysesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessing the determinants of Ebola Virus Disease Transmission in Baka Community of the Tropical Rainforest of Cameroon

Wirsiy

Bock

Akoachere

2020

Preprint

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Background: Ebola virus disease (EVD) is a severe, often fatal illness in humans and nonhuman primates caused by the Ebola virus. The recently approved rVSV-EBOV vaccine is not available in many high-risk countries hence prevention is paramount. Design of effective prevention interventions requires an understanding of the factors that expose communities at risk. It was based on this that we investigated the Baka community of Abong-Mbang Health District in tropical rain forest of Cameroon.Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted with participants randomly selected from 13 villages in Abong-Mbang by multi-stage cluster sampling. A questionnaire was administered to them to collect demographic information, data on knowledge of EVD, their feeding and health-seeking behaviour. Data was analyzed using the chi-square test. Knowledge of EVD was assessed using an 8 item Morisky Scale. An adapted Threat Capability Basic Risk Assessment Guide was used to determine their risk of exposure to infection.Results: A total of 510 participants, most of whom were hunters (31.4%), farmers (29.8%), and had primary education (62.7%), were included in this study. Although 83.3% participants had heard of EVD, most (71%) did not know its cause. Their source of information was mainly informal discussions in the community (49%). Misconceptions were identified with regards to the cause and mode of transmission. Only 43.1% accepted EVD could be transmitted from human-to-human. Generally, participants’ knowledge of EVD was poor. Demographic factors such as level of education, occupation and ethnic group significantly affected knowledge of EVD. The majority of participants were at a very high risk of exposure to infection as they consumed various forms of bush meat and were involved in other risky practices such as scarification and touching of corpses. Although over half of participants seek medical care, most of them preferred traditional medicine. Socio-cultural and service-related factors were deterrent factors to medical care. Conclusion: Participants generally had poor knowledge of EVD and were at high risk of infection. We recommend rigorous sensitization campaigns in the study area to educate the population on EVD and clarify the misconceptions identified. EVD surveillance is recommended particularly as outbreaks have often been reported in the Congo Basin

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“…It is caused by negative-stranded RNA viruses, belonging to the Filoviridae family, which are endemic to regions of the west and equatorial Africa [2]. The rst EVD human case was identi ed in 1976 in Zaire, the now called the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) [3]. Since then, there have been over 30 documented outbreaks with the worst, and most publicised being the 2014 West African outbreak and the recent 2018-2020 Kivu outbreak in DRC [3,4].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The rst EVD human case was identi ed in 1976 in Zaire, the now called the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) [3]. Since then, there have been over 30 documented outbreaks with the worst, and most publicised being the 2014 West African outbreak and the recent 2018-2020 Kivu outbreak in DRC [3,4].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The 100 top-Cited Studies on Ebola: A Bibliometric Analysis

Kawuki¹,

Musa²,

Papabathini³

et al. 2020

Preprint

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Background: The achievements in Ebola virus disease (EVD) prevention and control can be reflected by scientific studies, particularly in the top-cited studies. The study thus aimed to identify and characterise the 100 top-cited studies of Ebola.Methods: The study used a retrospective bibliometric analysis, which was performed in January 2020. Studies were searched from the Web of Science using the keywords: “Ebola” or “Ebola virus” or “Ebola virus disease” to identify the 100 top-cited ebola studies. Studies were analysed for the number of citations, authorship, and journal, year of publication, country and institution. The analyses were carried out using SPSS, HistCite and VOSviewer.Results: The 100 top-cited studies were published between 1977 and 2017, were cited from 169 to 808 times and had an average citation of 290.5, and 8 studies were cited more than 500 times. They were published in 31 journals, and Journal of Virology published most of the studies (n=14). They were produced by 33 countries, and the USA published most of the studies (63), followed by Germany (8) and Gabon (6). Centre for Disease prevention and Control-USA (26) was the leading institution, while Geisbert TW and Sanchez A were the most productive authors.Conclusions: This study provides insights into the historical advancements reflected by the top-cited studies and has highlighted the leading roles played by various stakeholders in addressing EVD. However, the contribution of African countries is not sufficiently reflected among these studies, and so more focus, funding and involvement in clinical research is needed for effective prevention and control of EVD in Africa.

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A Historical Review of Ebola Outbreaks

Cited by 12 publications

References 37 publications

Forty-two years of responding to Ebola virus outbreaks in Sub-Saharan Africa: a review

Forty-two years of responding to Ebola virus outbreaks in Sub-Saharan Africa: a review

Assessing the determinants of Ebola Virus Disease Transmission in Baka Community of the Tropical Rainforest of Cameroon

The 100 top-Cited Studies on Ebola: A Bibliometric Analysis

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