The World Health Organization (WHO) on Tuesday said no new cases of Ebola virus have been reported in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)’s Equateur province over the last 20 days, reported Anadolu Agency.
“However, while there are still confirmed cases at large in the community and difficulties with safe and dignified burials, transmission risks remain,” the WHO Africa said in a weekly bulletin.
The 11th Ebola outbreak in Equateur began in June this year, and has since spread to 12 of its 17 health zones.
According to the WHO Africa, a total of 128 cases including 119 confirmed, 53 deaths, and 69 recoveries have been reported in the ongoing outbreak so far. The previous epidemic, which started in the east in August 2018, was the deadliest in the country resulting in 2,277 deaths.
Last week, Professor Jean-Jacques Muyembe, the man leading the fight against the disease, claimed that the latest Ebola epidemic in the Democratic Republic of Congo is now under control.
“We are on the 16th day without new cases,” Professor Muyembe wrote on Twitter.
He added that the situation in the affected northwest province of Equateur was under control.
Ebola is a tropical fever that first appeared in 1976 in Sudan and the DRC. The disease is transmitted to humans from wild animals. The world’s worst Ebola outbreak began in West Africa in 2014 that killed more than 11,300 and infected an estimated 28,600 as it spread through Liberia, Guinea, and Sierra Leone.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Trusted Source recently approved the first treatment for Ebola virus disease in adults and children. The treatment, dubbed as Inmazeb, is a combination of three monoclonal antibodies made by Regeneron Pharmaceuticals.
The DRC is also facing the COVID-19 pandemic and has reported 11,000 positive coronavirus cases including 302 deaths.
