Endemic Areas and Recent Outbreaks - Test Area

The text in this section is taken from The Management of Viral Haemorrhagic Fevers in Ireland, Draft for Consultation, November 2011. Click here to see the full consultation draft document.

VHFs are endemic in a number of parts of the world: Africa, South America, the Middle East and Eastern Europe. Many wild and domestic animals, ticks, and mosquitoes are known to carry some of the VHF agents, although the reservoirs have not been identified for all VHF agents.

VHFs are restricted to relatively well-defined geographical areas. A detailed history of travel and behaviour is essential to rule out exposure. Referral to current geographical information about outbreaks and endemic areas is crucial in assessing VHF risk.

Click here for a list of VHFs by country, including both outbreaks and endemic areas.

Click here for a list of known endemic areas and countries where outbreaks have occurred for VHFs.

Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever is endemic in parts of Africa, Asia, the Middle East and Europe. CCHF is the only VHF that is endemic in Europe and has been endemic in Bulgaria since the 1950’s. Cases have also been notified in neighbouring countries including Albania, Kosovo, Turkey and the Ukraine as well as south western regions of the Russian Federation. The first case of CCHF in Greece was notified in 2008.

Confirmed cases and outbreaks of Ebola have been reported in various African countries since 1995, including the Gabon, Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda, Ivory Coast, Sudan and Kenya.

Lassa fever is endemic in parts of West Africa including Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Nigeria. The reservoir of Lassa virus is the multimammate rat (Mastomys genus).

Marburg virus is indigenous to Africa and while the geographic areas in which it is endemic are unknown, they appear to include at least parts of Uganda, Western Kenya, Angola and perhaps Zimbabwe. Recent studies implicate the African fruit bat as the reservoir host of the Marburg virus but further study is required to determine if there are other host species. The fruit bat is widely distributed across Africa (click here for map) extending the area at risk for outbreak for Marburg HF beyond that previously suspected.

The WHO provides a record of all known outbreaks of infectious disease, including VHFs. Click here to see the latest outbreaks and to access lists of outbreaks by year, disease or country. Archives of CCHF, Ebola, Lassa fever, Marburg and other viral haemorrhagic diseases outbreaks are also provided by the WHO.

Daily global disease updates are available on ProMED. The National Travel Health Network and Centre (NaTHNaC), funded by the Health Protection Agency, UK, also provides travel health information for health professionals and the public. Click here to search for outbreaks by country during the past month, six or twelve months.

Last updated: 23 March 2012