Ebola: The Congo Rash is Over

Residents and helpers in Congo can breathe easily. For 42 days, there was no known Ebola disease in the country. That would mean the end of the epidemic in the province of Ecuador, said Tuesday the Congolese Ministry of Health and the World Health Organization (WHO)

The success of the fight against the highly contagious fever that accompanies hemorrhage is also due to the rapid support of all. Thanks to the partners. According to WHO, the international community spent about $ 63 million to fight the epidemic – about a tenth of that amount came from Germany.

The epidemic in the country of Central Africa became known early May. In addition to diseases in extremely rural provinces, individual cases of illness have also occurred in the mega-city of Mbandaka. Caregivers feared a rapid spread of the disease to other parts of the country

To avoid this, caregivers have identified contact persons of infected persons, among other things give them an experimental vaccine and watch for them to detect signs of infection. Thirty-three deaths since the beginning of the epidemic

A total of 33 people died in the outbreak, and in 17 of the victims, the Ebola virus was detected in the laboratory. As some affected people living in extremely rural areas with little infrastructure, not all have been tested. This is the ninth epidemic of Ebola in Congo for 40 years.

There is still no effective drug against the virus that kills about half of the infected people. For this, Congolese doctors were able, for the first time, to use a means of protection against infections: a vaccine.

After the discovery of the first cases of Ebola in Congo, the Ministry of Health and the World Health Organization (WHO) have drugs. Now studies must show if there is evidence of an effect. The only practical experience came from West Africa. There, the researchers tested the experimental cure because the epidemic was already diminishing and only a few people were getting sick.

The Ebola virus is one of the most dangerous pathogens in the world. During a devastating epidemic in 2014 and 2015, more than 11,000 people died in Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone.