Last Ebola patient discharged in DR Congo, WHO says

The United Nations Health Organization (UNH) reports that Kasai province’s treatment center has given the country’s first Ebola patient the name of the patient.

The patient is the 19th person to recover from the 64 cases so far this year since the outbreak’s declaration in September, according to a WHO statement on Sunday.

The outbreak will be over if no new cases are discovered in the next 42 days.

Given that the outbreak only started six weeks ago, WHO’s director for Africa Mohamed Janabi described the recovery as a “remarkable achievement.”

He continued in a social media post that “the country’s robust response, supported by WHO and partners, was crucial to this achievement.”

Health workers were seen celebrating as the final patient left the treatment facility in Bulape in a video that came along with the post-X post.

The last #Ebola patient in Bulape, #DRC, was discharged from the treatment facility today.

The country’s swift response, supported by WHO and partners, was crucial to this success. The outbreak has now started a 42-day countdown to its conclusion.

@WHO and… pic until then. twitter.com/YTEpGzYwPW

Ebola cases started showing up in the Bulape and Mweka regions of the province’s southwest on September 4th, marking the 16th anniversary of the outbreak.

The WHO has since identified 53 confirmed and 11 probable cases, with patients with typical Ebola symptoms like fever, vomiting, diarrhoea, and hemorrhaging. There have been 45 fatalities.

Health officials claim that the remote Kasai province has proved challenging to reach despite the fact that it may have prevented the virus from spreading.

The WHO, according to the organization, deployed response teams and for the first time established a 32-bed treatment facility outside of a simulation exercise in the area. In the Bulape region, over 35 000 people have been immunized.

Since September 25, no new cases have been discovered.

Ebola was first discovered in the DRC in 1976 following a severe outbreak there. Up to 90% of cases, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, are fatal without treatment.

In West Africa, the disease, which lasted for the entirety of 2014 and 2016, killed 11, 325 people and infected 28, 600 in West Africa, with the disease also affecting Europe and the United States.