Kinshasa announces "the end of the epidemic"

The ninth Ebola epidemic on Congolese soil has been far more brief than that of West Africa that had plagued between December 2013 and January 2016, killing 11,300 people. Indeed, the Congolese authorities officially declared Tuesday, July 24, the end of the Ebola epidemic that began on May 8, 2018 in the Equateur province in the DRC. According to Health Minister Oly Ilunga, there were a total of 54 people affected, including 33 deaths. Since June 6, 2018, a 42-day observation period, no new confirmed cases have been recorded

The first case was detected in rural Bikoro. Then, for the first time, it spread to a very densely populated urban area, which alarmed the government and the World Health Organization (WHO). Especially in the city of one million inhabitants of Mbandaka, directly connected to the metropolis of Kinshasa and Brazzaville by the Congo River, a vector of contamination.

"Making life triumph"

In a few words minutes Tuesday, the Minister of Health praised the example of the response put in place by the government and its partners. In less than 24 hours, Kinshasa had deployed an intervention team from the Ministry of Health in the field. Three mobile laboratories of the INRB in Mbandaka, Bikoro and Itipo were installed, as well as an air bridge connected to Kinshasa.

"We have isolated cases quickly, we have put in place an excellent system of research of patient contacts" added the sub Chief Executive Officer at WHO, Michael Ryan. He asserts that it was this efficient management that prevented a major crisis, even more than the vaccination of 3,300 people, which played only a "small role". The VSV-EBOV vaccine was developed as part of an epidemic in Guinea in 2015 by the Public Health Agency of Canada.

Recurring Epidemics

It is also this country that has seen it all first case of Ebola, discovered in 1976. Transmitted by the vector of animals such as antelopes, chimpanzees and gorillas, the virus is formidable because of its high lethality rate and lack of treatment that exists on the market . The latest violent outpouring took place in 2007 in the country causing the death of 250 people out of 264 cases listed. Since then, the government appears to have improved its management of epidemics, learning from the previous nine crises.