The Democratic Republic of Congo, where the deadly Ebola virus first appeared in 1976, has begun a countdown to the official end of its latest outbreak, this time in the east of the country, health officials said on Tuesday.
The last patient to be treated for Ebola tested negative for the second time on Sunday, triggering a 42-day countdown from Monday, the World Health Organization’s (WHO) DR Congo office said.
The period represents twice the average maximum duration of Ebola’s incubation, the Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.
The virus only re-emerged when the wife of a man who had contracted the virus in a previous outbreak was diagnosed with symptoms of the Zaire Ebola virus in the city of Biena on February 1 and died at a hospital in Butembo on February 3.
Since then, 12 cases have been registered in the DRC’s northern Kivu province, half of which are fatal.
The virus, which jumps to humans from infected animals, is transmitted between humans through body fluids. The main symptoms are fever, vomiting, bleeding and diarrhea.
According to the WHO’s latest status report last Thursday, 1,606 people had been vaccinated against Ebola in the Democratic Republic of Congo, a vast former Belgian colony in central Africa, today one of the world’s poorest countries.
The vaccine, developed by the US laboratories Merck Sharpe and Dohme, was first used during the 10th Ebola outbreak, which lasted from August 2018 to June 2020 in northern and southern Kivu and neighboring Ituri province, as well as during the eleventh outbreak, in the western province of Equateur. between July and November 2020.
With more than 2,200 registered deaths, the 10th epidemic is considered to be the worst to hit Congo since 1976 and lasted from August 2018 to June 2020.
The virus also affected Guinea, in West Africa, in mid-February, with 18 cases and nine deaths, according to the WHO, with nearly 4,000 people vaccinated in the country.
The worst Ebola outbreak ever began in December 2013 in southern Guinea before spreading to two nearby West African countries, Liberia and Sierra Leone.
The epidemic killed more than 11,300 people in nearly 29,000 registered cases, according to WHO estimates.
.
