Ebola outbreak in Congo over, Congolese health officials and WHO say

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KINSHASA, Dec 1 (Reuters) – An Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo is now over, Congolese health officials and the U.N.’s World Health Organization said on Monday, after the country went 42 consecutive days without recording a new case. 

The outbreak, declared on September 4 after the disease was identified in the Bulape health zone in Congo’s Kasai Province, was the country’s first since 2022. Out of a total of 64 cases, 45 people died and 19 others recovered, according to the Congolese health ministry.

From the early days of the outbreak, Congo used a revamped national surveillance system to enable authorities to rapidly map the affected area and contain transmission.

“Controlling and ending this Ebola outbreak in three months is a remarkable achievement,” WHO regional director Dr Mohamed Janabi said in a statement.

Congo will now begin a 90-day period of enhanced disease surveillance, the statement said.

The Ebola outbreak was the Central African nation’s 16th since the disease was first identified in 1976, according to the WHO.

There have been no new cases since September 25, and the last Ebola patient was discharged on October 19.

Two maximum incubation periods of 21 days each must pass without the detection of new cases before an outbreak can be declared officially over.

The Ebola virus, a rare but often fatal illness in humans, is endemic to Congo’s vast tropical forests. It is transmitted through contact with blood and other bodily fluids and causes symptoms including fever, body aches, and diarrhoea.

(Reporting by Sonia Rolley, Ange Adihe Kasongo and Congo newsroom; Writing by Ayen Deng Bior; Editing by Joe Bavier)