Current Travel Health News

The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is facing its worst Cholera epidemic for 6 years. The UN agency reports that 31,342 cases of suspected or confirmed cholera and 230 deaths were notified throughout the country during the first 7 months of this year, including many children.

Burundi's case involves circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus type 2 (cVDPV2). The country reported one such case in 2022.

Guinea reported a cVDPV2 case, its first since 2021.

Elsewhere, Chad reported 3 more cVDPV2 cases, bringing its total for the year to 23. And the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) reported 2 cVDPV2 cases, lifting the year's total to 62. The DRC also reported 1 more case involving circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus type 1 (cVDPV1), putting the 2023 total at 47 such cases.

The Institute of Public Health of North Macedonia reported Monday on the third human case of Crimean-Congo Hemorrhagic Fever in the country, involving a 42-year-old man from Veles.

The Taiwan Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced Tuesday there were 469 new local cases of Dengue Fever in Taiwan last week (from August 8 to August 14, 2023)–this includes the first local cases in Taipei City, Hsinchu City, and Changhua County. To date, there have been a total of 1,579 local cases in Taiwan. This year, there are 10 severe cases and one death reported.

The surveillance report for the week ending August 12 includes one more case of Dengue Fever from Miami-Dade County in USA, bringing the state's total for the year to 11.

Mainland China has reported three Plague cases, involving members of the same family from Inner Mongolia autonomous region.

A woman, from Xilin Gol Meng, was diagnosed as having plague on August 7, and the infections of her husband and daughter were confirmed on August 12.

Plague is caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis. The disease is transmitted from infected animals, such as rodents, to humans through flea bites.

Maricopa County, Arizona health officials are reporting 57 West Nile Virus (WNV) cases through August 9 this year. This is more than double the 26 cases that were reported during the same period in 2022 and more than the total cases for the whole year (46).

Five deaths have been reported to date.

The ARS Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur region reported recently on two autochthonous, or locally-acquired cases of Dengue Fever in the Bouches-du-Rhône department.

The cases, residents of the town of Gardanne, did not travel abroad in the 15 days preceding the onset of symptoms.

In late May, Thailand’s Ministry of Public Health announced the number of Dengue Fever cases this year could reach a 3-year high. Thailand has witnessed a staggering rise in dengue fever cases this year, with nearly 60,000 cases reported through August 5 this year (59,372).

49 deaths have been reported to date.

In all of 2022, Thailand saw 46,679 cases and 32 deaths.

The incidence of Measles is on the rise in Kazakhstan. More than 3,000 cases have been registered this year. Cases of measles are registered in all regions of the country.

The city of Almaty has reported the most cases accounting for about a third of the total, this is followed by the Zhambyl region.

The Taiwan Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported today the death of a woman in her 30s from the brain eating amoeba, Naegleria Fowleri. She had no recent travel history abroad and had traveled to recreation in an indoor water facility.

In a follow-up on the Crimean-Congo Hemorrhagic Fever (CCHF) situation in Afghanistan this year, officials report 806 cumulative cases and 86 deaths (10.67% CFR) through August 5.

The Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) in Dhaka, Bangladesh reports 80,074 total Dengue Fever cases through August 11, with cases nearly evenly split between the capital city of Dhaka and outside of Dhaka.

To date, 373 dengue related fatalities have been reported, nearly 100 deaths higher that the record year of 2022 when 281 deaths were reported for the whole year.

Malaysia health officials reported 2,427 Dengue Fever cases during the last week of July, bringing the cumulative total for the year to 68,651. This is a 120.6 percent increase in cases compared to the same period last year when 31,127 cases were reported. There were 47 fatalities due to complications related to dengue compared with 22 deaths due to the same complications throughout 2022.

From January 1 to August 7 this year, 15 human Rabies cases have been reported in Sarawak, including 13 fatalities. This is a 87.5% increase from the seven cases in the same period last year.

The first two US human infections with swine flu viruses in 2023 were reported this week in Michigan, according to an update today by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The CDC said the two infections occurred in people who attended different agricultural fairs in Michigan and had contact with pigs. The infections were caused by two different types of flu virus variants—likely influenza A(H3)v and influenza A(H1N2)v—that are usually associated with contact with pigs.

Pakistan has reported another wild poliovirus type 1 (WPV1) case, marking its second of the year, the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) said in its latest weekly update. The patient is from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in the northwestern part of the country.

Elsewhere, two African countries reported more circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus type 2 (cVDPV2) cases. Burkina Faso reported its second case of the year, and Chad reported 5 cases in four provinces, bringing its total for the year to 20.