Rift Valley fever virus outbreak in Mauritania yet again in 2022: No room for complacency

Abstract

Rift Valley fever is an important yet ignored viral hemorrhagic fever claiming many lives of African and Arabian countries over the past decade. Unfortunately, a recent outbreak of Rift Valley fever is currently ravaging in Mauritania. Death toll is rising continuously with 23 deaths reported in the month of October, 2022. Our article aims to shed light on the ongoing Rift Valley fever outbreak and recommendations to eradicate this potential threat to public health. Online databases including PubMed, the Lancet, and Science Direct as well as conferences, news, and press releases were used to for data collection. All the available medical literature related to Rift Valley fever in Mauritania were taken into consideration while writing the manuscript. As of October 17, 2022, 47 cases have been documented out of which 23 are dead. Case fatality rate has been reached to 49% which has given a wakeup call to the authorities. Efforts are being made by the concerned authorities and World Health Organization to halt the progression of this outbreak. Further investigations are required to completely eradicate the recurrent outbreaks in Mauritania especially in the area of vaccine development. Active involvement of public with the government authorities is of extreme significance in combating this disease.

Zoonotic Diseases in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

“…These pathologies have all been reported to be deadly in humans. The estimated CFR for monkeypox ranged from 0 to 11% during the 2022 outbreak [80]; meanwhile, that of Rift Valley fever during an outbreak in Mauritania in 2022 was reported to be as high as 49% [81]. As for Ebola virus disease, the CFR has been reported to range from 20% to 90%, depending on the species [82].…”

Rift Valley fever in West Africa: A zoonotic disease with multiple socio-economic consequences

“…Countries that are endemic with RVFV notified epidemics are colored red; countries with sporadic cases and/or serological evidence of RVFV circulation are colored green; countries that have reported some outbreaks of RVFV are colored pink; and countries where no data are available on RVFV are colored gray; The dates are the years RVF cases were reported in the species in which the diagnosis was made. Map adapted from [ 5 , 16 , 17 , 19 , 22 , 23 , [29] , [30] , [31] , [32] , [33] , [35] , [36] , [37] , [38] , [39] , [40] , [41] , [42] , [43] , [44] , [45] , [46] , [47] , [48] ] (Map was made with Datawrapper.de). (For interpretation of the references to colour in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the web version of this article.)…”

“…In 2015 and again in 2020, respectively 31 and 78 cases of RVF in humans were confirmed [ 21 , 22 ]. Even more recently, in 2022, 47 human cases were documented including 23 human deaths [ 23 ]. Seven species of mosquitoes known to be RVFV vectors belonging to three genera ( Culex spp.…”

Arthropod-Borne Viruses in Mauritania: A Literature Review

“…The latest RVF outbreak occurred during the rainy season in 2022 during which 47 confirmed cases and 23 (49.0%) deaths, mostly among animal breeders, were notified [36,37]. This outbreak was one of the deadliest documented RVF outbreaks in Mauritania.…”