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DRC Contains Ebola


FILE: Congolese people ride a motorcycle past the newly constructed MSF (Doctors Without Borders) Ebola treatment center in Goma in the Democratic Republic of Congo, 8.3.2019
FILE: Congolese people ride a motorcycle past the newly constructed MSF (Doctors Without Borders) Ebola treatment center in Goma in the Democratic Republic of Congo, 8.3.2019

The Democratic Republic of Congo declared its latest Ebola outbreak over on Monday, the World Health Organization said, more than two months after the virus re-emerged in the country's northwest.

WHO's regional director for Africa Matshidiso Moeti said in the statement that the authorities limited the spread of Ebola with a vaccination campaign four days after the start of the outbreak.

There were four confirmed cases and one probable case -- all of whom died, the WHO said on Monday.

"Crucial lessons have been learned from past outbreaks and they have been applied to devise and deploy an ever more effective Ebola response," Moeti said.

Health authorities in the vast central African nation declared an epidemic on April 23 in Mbandaka, in the northwestern Equateur province.

The previous outbreak in the forested province, from June to November 2020, claimed 55 lives.

The DRC's latest outbreak marks the 14th since 1976, according to the WHO. Six of those outbreaks have occurred since 2018.

Ebola is an often-fatal viral haemorrhagic fever that was first identified in central Africa in 1976. The disease was named after a river in the Democratic Republic of Congo, then known as Zaire.

Human transmission is through body fluids, with the main symptoms being fever, vomiting, bleeding and diarrhoea.

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