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The Democratic\u00a0Republic of the Congo today declared\u00a0the end of\u00a0the Ebola outbreak\u00a0that erupted\u00a0less than three months ago\u00a0in\u00a0Mbandaka,\u00a0the capital of\u00a0Equateur Province\u00a0in the northwest.\u00a0It was the\u00a0third outbreak in the province since 2018 and\u00a0the\u00a0country\u2019s\u00a014th\u00a0overall.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
With\u00a0greater\u00a0experience\u00a0in\u00a0Ebola control,\u00a0national\u00a0emergency teams, with the support\u00a0from\u00a0World Health Organization (WHO) and partners,\u00a0mounted a swift response soon after the\u00a0outbreak\u00a0was\u00a0declared\u00a0on 23 April, rolling out\u00a0key\u00a0counter\u00a0measures including\u00a0testing, contact tracing, infection prevention and control,\u00a0treatmentand community engagement.\u00a0Vaccination\u00a0\u2013 a crucial protective measure \u2013 was launched just\u00a0four\u00a0days after the outbreak\u00a0was declared.<\/p>\n
In\u00a0all, there were\u00a0four confirmed cases\u00a0and\u00a0one probable case\u00a0\u2013 all\u00a0of whom died.\u00a0In the previous outbreak in\u00a0Equateur Province\u00a0that lasted from\u00a0June\u00a0to\u00a0November 2020, there were 130 confirmed cases and\u00a055 deaths.<\/p>\n
\u201cThanks to\u00a0the\u00a0robust\u00a0response\u00a0by the national authorities, this outbreak has\u00a0been brought to an end swiftly\u00a0withlimited transmission of the virus,\u201d said Dr Matshidiso Moeti, WHO Regional Director\u00a0for Africa. \u201cCrucial lessons have been learned from past outbreaks and they have been applied to devise and deploy an ever more effective Ebola response.\u201d<\/p>\n
The just ended outbreak saw a total of 2104 people vaccinated,\u00a0including\u00a0302 contacts and 1307 frontline workers.\u00a0To facilitate the vaccination\u00a0rollout, an ultra-cold chain freezer was installed in\u00a0Mbandaka\u00a0which allowed\u00a0for\u00a0vaccine\u00a0doses to be stored locally and safely\u00a0and\u00a0be\u00a0delivered\u00a0effectively.<\/p>\n
The Democratic Republic of the Congo has now recorded 14 Ebola outbreaks since 1976, six of which have occurred since 2018.<\/p>\n
\u201cAfrica is\u00a0seeing an increase in Ebola and other\u00a0infectious diseases that\u00a0jump\u00a0from animals to humans\u00a0impacting large urban areas,\u201d said Dr Moeti. \u201cWe need to be ever more vigilant to ensure we\u00a0catch cases quickly.\u00a0This outbreak response shows that by\u00a0bolstering preparedness, disease surveillance and swift detection, we can\u00a0stay a step ahead.\u201d<\/p>\n
WHO supported the\u00a0Democratic Republic of the Congo\u00a0in implementing a\u00a0strong national\u00a0strategy\u00a0developed early to guide response coordination; decentralizing\u00a0operations to the lowest level to work closely with communities;\u00a0basing the\u00a0response on evidence;\u00a0and\u00a0regularly\u00a0analysing\u00a0the\u00a0epidemiological risk\u00a0to rapidly adjust the\u00a0response.<\/p>\n
Although the outbreak\u00a0in\u00a0Mbandaka\u00a0has been\u00a0declared over, health authorities are maintaining surveillance and are ready to respond quickly to any flare-ups. It is not unusual for sporadic cases to occur following an\u00a0outbreak.<\/p>\n
The disease, which affects humans and other primates,\u00a0is\u00a0severe\u00a0and\u00a0often fatal. Case fatality rates have varied from 25% to 90% in past outbreaks.\u00a0However, with the\u00a0currently available effective\u00a0treatment,\u00a0patients\u00a0have a significantly higher chance of survival if they\u00a0are\u00a0treated\u00a0early and given\u00a0supportive care.<\/p>\n
Distributed by APO Group on behalf of World Health Organization (WHO) – Democratic Republic of Congo.<\/i><\/p>\n
Source<\/a> The Democratic\u00a0Republic of the Congo today declared\u00a0the end of\u00a0the Ebola outbreak\u00a0that erupted\u00a0less than three months ago\u00a0in\u00a0Mbandaka,\u00a0the capital of\u00a0Equateur Province\u00a0in the northwest.\u00a0It was the\u00a0third outbreak in the province since 2018 and\u00a0the\u00a0country\u2019s\u00a014th\u00a0overall. With\u00a0greater\u00a0experience\u00a0in\u00a0Ebola control,\u00a0national\u00a0emergency teams, with the support\u00a0from\u00a0World Health Organization (WHO) and partners,\u00a0mounted a swift response soon after the\u00a0outbreak\u00a0was\u00a0declared\u00a0on 23 April, rolling out\u00a0key\u00a0counter\u00a0measures including\u00a0testing, contact tracing, infection […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":88374,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/africa-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/1656941405_893_418.jpeg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[278],"tags":[18084,258,256,4696,4554,7030,6404,281,4691,450,279,280,1111,257,6582,5935,254],"class_list":["post-88373","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-dr-congo","tag-14th","tag-africa","tag-africa-news","tag-central-africa","tag-congo","tag-declares","tag-democratic","tag-democratic-republic-of-congo","tag-dr-congo","tag-dr-congo-news","tag-drc","tag-drc-news","tag-ebola","tag-news","tag-outbreak","tag-republic","tag-south-africa-today"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/africa-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/1656941405_893_418.jpeg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/africa-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88373","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/africa-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/africa-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/africa-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/africa-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=88373"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/africa-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88373\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/africa-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/88374"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/africa-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=88373"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/africa-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=88373"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/africa-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=88373"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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South Africa Today Africa \u2013 Central Africa Democratic Republic of Congo<\/a> News<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"