After a countdown of 42 days, twice the incubation period, no case of the highly transmissible disease has been reported in the country, health authorities said.
The Democratic Republic of Congo has beaten Ebola haemorrhagic fever. Last October, an epidemic was declared in the province of North Kivu. Since the last confirmed case was discharged from hospital, no further infections have been reported.
“In total, eleven cases (eight confirmed), including six deaths, were recorded during (the second outbreak in 2021), after the confirmation of a case in the health zone of Beni, in the province of North Kivu,” the World Health Organization (WHO) said in a statement received by APA Thursday.
According to WHO, more than 1,800 people have been vaccinated in a campaign launched five days after the detection of the first case of Ebola. During this epidemic, the 13th in the DRC, the recently licensed Ervebo vaccine was used for the first time in the country.
According to Dr Matshidiso Moeti, WHO Regional Director for Africa, “stronger disease surveillance, community involvement, targeted vaccination and a rapid response are making Ebola control more effective in the Region.”
However, the UN agency warned, surveillance efforts must be maintained and health authorities must be ready to respond quickly to any potential new outbreak.
It is not unusual for sporadic cases to emerge after a major epidemic, WHO said. As evidence, it argued, genomic sequencing results from the National Institute of Biomedical Research have shown that the first case of Ebola, detected during the recently concluded epidemic, likely represents a resurgence of the 2018-2020 epidemic due to the persistence of the virus in the community.
ID/lb/abj/APA