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This episode of Ebola, reported on May 8 in the northwest of the country, will have killed 33 people, for a total of 54 cases.
Kinshasa announced, Tuesday, July 23, the end of the Ninth outbreak of Ebola virus disease on Congolese soil, Health Minister Oly Ilunga announced on the eve of a ceremony with the World Health Organization (WHO). This episode of Ebola, declared on May 8 in the north-west of the country, will have killed 33 people, for a total of 54 cases.
WHO congratulated "the country and all those involved in the end of the epidemic ". Its director, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, will be present on Wednesday in Kinshasa to mark the end of the epidemic with the authorities of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The final badessment appears as a lesser evil, since the Congolese authorities had prepared with their partners "in the worst of scenarios" faced with an unprecedented crisis with this epidemic that affected Ecuador, on the border of Congo-Brazzaville.
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The anxiety was at its height when the disease, part of isolated areas in the equatorial forest, gained from May 16 a large urban center, the provincial capital Mbandaka and its 1.2 million inhabitants, connected directly to Kinshasa and its 10 million inhabitants by the Congo River. WHO explains:
"Unlike previous epidemics, it affected four different places, including an urban center in river connection with the capital and neighboring countries, as well as isolated villages in the equatorial forest. . At first there was a strong concern that the disease could spread to other parts of the DRC, and to neighboring countries "
WHO was criticized for being slow to respond to the worst Ebola epidemic, which killed more than 11,000 people in 2013-2014 in West Africa. Two weeks after the announcement of the outbreak, WHO and the Congolese authorities launched a targeted vaccination targeting health care workers, patient contacts and contacts, totaling 3,300 people. 19659010] Experimental vaccine
Used for the first time, the vaccine against Ebola, still experimental, was a "fantastic tool" but it played only "small role" in the fight against the epidemic in the DRC, said Michael Ryan, Deputy Director General at WHO. In the opinion of the Congolese authorities and the WHO, the effectiveness of the response is due in particular to a rapid and aggressive humanitarian response, with a "extremely rapid deployment of national teams and international stakeholders in the field" according to Mr. Ryan.
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Throughout the epidemic, the WHO and the NGOs were careful to recall that the DRC ensured the "leadership" of the response, so as not to offend the susceptibility of Kinshasa. In April, just before the outbreak, the Congolese authorities had boycotted a humanitarian conference for the benefit of the DRC, accusing the UN and NGOs of exaggerating the humanitarian crisis in the country.
"This effective response to the Ebola disease should convince the Congolese government and its partners that it is possible to counter other epidemics " said the Director General of WHO. As in many African countries, malaria kills thousands of people each year in the DRC. The country is also facing a cholera outbreak that affected Kinshasa earlier this year. Twenty-six cases of polio have also been reported in recent months in the DRC, unwanted "derivatives" of the vaccine administered to millions of children.
This outbreak of Ebola is the ninth largest in the world. Congolese soil since the virus was identified in 1976. One of the most violent occurred in 2007, where the haemorrhagic fever was particularly severe in Kasai Occidental (center) between April and October, making 187 deaths out of 264 cases listed
The Congolese epidemic is the second Ebola outbreak since the devastating epidemic that hit West Africa between December 2013 and 2014, causing more than 11,300 deaths in 29,000 registered cases. 99% in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone
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