The authorities of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the World Health Organization (WHO) have ended the Ebola outbreak that was detected in October in the province of North Kivu, after verifying eleven cases derived from this virus, with a total of six fatalities.
The Ebola outbreak is concluded when 42 days have elapsed – equivalent to two incubation periods – since the discharge of the last diagnosed patient, a period that has already been reached in this new emergency, which set off alarms in an area already faced the disease on other occasions. In fact, the outbreak in North Kivu is the thirteenth known to have occurred in Congolese territory, although on this occasion novel responses have been applied. For the first time, the recently developed ERVEBO vaccine has been applied and more than 1,800 people have been immunized.
The director of the WHO in Africa, Matshidiso Moeti, has stressed that each time the response to the outbreaks is “more effective” and has celebrated that they have been able to “limit infections and save lives.” With each outbreak, he added, “crucial lessons are learned.” Thus, contact tracing would be better and better, as well as awareness-raising work in local communities, key both in the prevention of infections and in the response to the sick.