The Democratic Republic of Congo on Monday declared its latest Ebola outbreak over according to a confirmation from the World Health Organisation, almost three months after the virus re-emerged in the country’s northwest.
Africa Today News, New York recalls that health authorities in the vast central African nation had on April 23 in Mbandaka declared an epidemic, in the northwestern Equateur province.
There were four confirmed cases and one probable case — all of whom died, the WHO revealed on Monday.
The last outbreak in the forested province which took effect from June to November 2020, claimed about 55 lives.
WHO’s regional director for Africa Matshidiso Moeti said in the statement that the authorities reacted rapidly, limiting the spread of Ebola with a vaccination campaign four days after the start of the outbreak.
‘Crucial lessons have been learned from past outbreaks and they have been applied to devise and deploy an ever more effective Ebola response’.
Ebola is an often-fatal viral haemorrhagic fever that was first identified in central Africa in 1976. The disease was named after a river in the Democratic Republic of Congo, then known as Zaire.
Human transmission is through body fluids, with the main symptoms being fever, vomiting, bleeding, and diarrhoea.
The DRC’s latest outbreak marks the 14th since 1976, according to the WHO. Six of those outbreaks have occurred since 2018.
The Democratic Republic of the Congo had previously kicked off Ebola vaccination in Mbandaka, the capital city of Equateur Province in the north-west, to halt the spread of the virus following an outbreak which has claimed two lives since 21 April.
Around 200 doses of the rVSV-ZEBOV Ebola vaccine have been shipped to Mbandaka from the eastern city of Goma. More doses will be delivered progressively in the coming days. The vaccination uses the “ring strategy” where the contacts and the contacts of contacts of confirmed Ebola patient are given the vaccine as well as frontline and health workers.
So far, 233 contacts have been identified and are being monitored. Three vaccination teams are already on the ground and will work to reach all the people at high risk. To date, two cases, both deceased, have been confirmed since the outbreak began. The disease has currently been reported only in Mbandaka health district.