The Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo is now over, Congolese health officials and the United Nations World Health Organization said Monday, after the country went 42 consecutive days without a new case.
The outbreak, which was declared on September 4 after the disease was identified in the Bulape health zone in Congo’s Kasai province, was the country’s first since 2022. Out of a total of 64 cases, 45 people have died and 19 others have recovered, according to the Congolese health ministry.
Since the early days of the outbreak, Congo has used an overhauled national surveillance system that allowed authorities to quickly map the affected area and limit transmission.
“Controlling and ending this Ebola epidemic in three months is a remarkable achievement,” WHO regional director Dr. Mohamed Janabi said in a statement.
Congo will now begin a 90-day period of heightened disease surveillance, the statement said.
The central African nation’s Ebola outbreak was the 16th since the disease was first identified in 1976, according to the WHO.
There have been no new cases since September 25, and the last Ebola patient was discharged on October 19.
Before an outbreak can be officially declared over, two maximum incubation periods of 21 days each must elapse without new cases being detected.
The Ebola virus, a rare but often fatal disease in humans, is endemic to the vast rainforests of the Congo. It is spread through contact with blood and other body fluids and causes symptoms including fever, body aches and diarrhoea.
