There are 2,124 laboratory-confirmed cases of the Ebola virus in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where the outbreak, declared on May 15, has claimed the lives of 828 people, according to a report released yesterday by the country’s authorities.

This Ebola outbreak in the DRC is spreading faster than previous ones, the head of the World Health Organization emphasized today. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus explained that the number of confirmed cases exceeded 2,000 within two months, whereas the 2018 outbreak took more than ten months to reach that number.

The 17th Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is caused by the Bundibugyo strain, for which there is neither a vaccine nor a treatment.

Ebola, which causes hemorrhagic fever, has killed more than 15,000 people in Africa over the past 50 years. The deadliest outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo resulted in nearly 2,300 deaths out of a total of 3,500 recorded cases between 2018 and 2020.

No More Ebola Patients in Uganda

Authorities in Uganda announced that there are no longer any patients infected with the dreaded Ebola virus in the country, as the last patient was discharged from the hospital after recovering yesterday, but the country must now wait 42 days—during which no new cases may be detected—before it can be declared free of the virus.

The current outbreak of the disease caused by the Ebola virus was officially declared on May 15 in the neighboring Democratic Republic of the Congo, in Ituri Province (northeast), which borders South Sudan and Uganda.

The Ugandan Ministry of Health recorded 20 laboratory-confirmed cases, and two of the patients died. The rest recovered. Fifteen of the cases were people who had traveled to the country from the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

“Today, we are happy—at the Ebola treatment unit at Mulago Hospital (in the capital, Kampala), we saw the last patient who had been infected with the Ebola virus leave,” Uganda’s Minister of Health,  Dr. Chris Bariomunsi, flanked by, among others, the World Health Organization (WHO) representative in the country, Dr. Kasonde Muiga.

The recovered patient is a citizen of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. “We must now wait 42 days” without a new case “to confirm that we have defeated Ebola,” the minister said.

This is twice the incubation period of the virus in the human body (21 days), as stipulated by WHO guidelines.

He added that hundreds of contacts of confirmed cases had been placed in isolation for 21 days and had not developed any symptoms. “We will remain vigilant and strengthen measures along the borders to minimize or completely prevent cross-border transmission,” the minister noted. “Ebola can be defeated,” he emphasized.

Uganda has not reported any new cases since June 22.

In Uganda, “contact tracing has been very effective, as has the monitoring” of those who received treatment, Seravit Brick-Lade, global health advisor responsible for East Africa at the French Embassy in Nairobi, explained to the Agence France-Presse (AFP).

Uganda is “an example of how the Ebola epidemic can truly be brought under control,” the expert said.

Source: CNA