Ebola: the epidemic ends in the Democratic Republic of Congo

The World Health Organization (WHO) is expected to soon declare the end of the Ebola epidemic in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). This is what the UN health agency announced in its last epidemiological point. This epidemic, which is unrelated to the one raging in West Africa, will therefore have been brief.

Last case on October 10

As of October 21, WHO has identified 67 cases of Ebola in the DRC, of ​​which 38 have been confirmed. A total of 49 people will have succumbed to this viral hemorrhagic fever. Here too, health professionals were not spared since 8 of them were infected. But unlike West Africa, where the epidemic is still progressing (10,141 cases, 4,922 deaths, 6 countries affected), the spread of the virus seems rather well controlled.

The last suspected case in DRC was reported on October 10, and the test came back negative. Good news, according to the WHO. The agency also specifies that “the Democratic Republic of Congo will be declared free from Ebola, 42 days after the date of the second negative test, if no new case is reported. “

An epidemic quickly brought under control

A study published in the New England Journal of Medicine quickly confirmed that the strain circulating in the DRC is not the same as that affecting West Africa. It is in fact very close to those which prevailed between 1995 and 1997 in the DRC and Gabon. The researchers also identified “patient zero”: a woman who fell ill after butchering a monkey she found in the forest.

The epidemic in the DRC was quickly contained. This could be explained by protective measures quickly put in place: isolation of patients, protection of medical personnel, public awareness. It must be said that hemorrhagic fever is not new in the country, which is currently experiencing the seventh epidemic in its history. Moreover, the disease takes its name from a river that crosses the north of the Democratic Republic of Congo.