Weekly Updates on Emerging Diseases

The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) has launched a weekly online update on new disease outbreaks in the Americas, part of its efforts to assist member countries in preparedness and response to emerging and reemerging infectious diseases.

Published by the Disease Prevention and Control area, EID Weekly Updates provides the latest data on recent outbreaks of diseases such as West Nile virus, jungle yellow fever, malaria, hantavirus and epidemic pneumonia.

The service was launched in July following the emergence of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, or SARS, in Asia and its importation into Canada and the United States. The premier issue reported the end of that outbreak, noting that the last probable case had been isolated in Taiwan on June 15 and that two consecutive 10-day incubation periods had passed with no further cases detected.

The largest outbreak reported so far by EID Weekly Updates has been an epidemic of pneumonia in El Salvador, with a cumulative 56,847 cases reported through early August, including 312 associated deaths.

The updates have also reported on the spread of West Nile virus in the United States and Canada in recent months. The first issue of EID Weekly Updates, on July 10, reported only one case of human West Nile virus confirmed by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in 2003. By the Sept. 12 issue, nine weeks later, the number of cases in the United States had risen to 3,307, with 64 deaths. The same issue reported 303 confirmed or probable cases in Canada, more than twice the number of cases reported a week earlier.

Other outbreaks in the updates include:

• 216 cases since June 20 of P. vivax malaria in San Juan del Oro, Peru, primarily affecting male agricultural workers.
• 181 cases and 75 deaths from jungle yellow fever in Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Peru and Venezuela as of August 26.
• One confirmed case of hantavirus reported by Panama in July, the first case in Central America in 2003.

EID Weekly Updates is based on data from member countries' ministries of health and from the United States' CDC.

"Unlike some similar information sources, we only publish verified data," said Mario Libel, PAHO's leading expert on emerging and reemerging diseases. "We do look for press reports on outbreaks to keep up to date, but then we initiate a process of official verification."

Otavio Oliva, PAHO advisor on communicable diseases, adds: "We try to add value by not only giving the figures but also saying what is important about the outbreak and what public health actions might be taken."