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Published on
20.02.2019 at 13:54
by
AFP
An Ebola outbreak that has killed more than 500 people in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo has been under control in a major zone, the Ministry of Health said Tuesday.
In a statement, he said that there had been no new confirmed cases of Ebola in the Beni area since 21 days ago.
"We can now consider that the Ebola outbreak is currently under control in Beni," he said, calling it "major progress".
The deadly haemorrhagic virus erupted on August 8 in the North Kivu region, bordering Uganda and Rwanda.
Beni, an area that includes a city of that name, is responsible for 118 deaths.
The ministry warned that the Beni region was at risk of contracting new infections from neighboring areas, including Butembo and Katwa, where 74 cases of Ebola had been recorded in the past three weeks.
The ministry said it had recorded a total of 844 cases of Ebola, including 779 laboratory-confirmed cases and 65 probable cases. Of the 844, 528 deaths were recorded.
The outbreak can only be declared over when the country has not registered any new cases of Ebola for 42 consecutive days.
International health experts are helping the DRC, but violence in the region, where militia groups are endemic, is hampering efforts.
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