If a period of 42 days passes without new cases

The Democratic Republic of Congo hopes to declare an end to the Ebola outbreak in June

REUTERS/ZOHRA BENSEMRA - Arlette Kavugho, 40, a mother of six and an Ebola survivor who works as a caregiver, carries 16-month-old Kambale Eloge, whose mother died from Ebola, during her visit to the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) nursery

EFE

16 de mayo de 2020 (14:41 h.)

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The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has released the last Ebola patient in the northeast of the country and authorities hope to be able to declare an official end to the outbreak by the end of June, provided that 42 days pass without new cases, health sources confirmed to Efe.

"Indeed, he has been discharged from the treatment center and we are going to follow the criteria for declaring the end of the epidemic," Steve Ahuka, the national coordinator of the Ebola response, confirmed in a telephone conversation on Saturday.

The last hospitalised patient was discharged on Friday from Beni, a Congolese town that has been one of the major epicentres of the epidemic that was declared in August 2018 in north-eastern Congo.

Despite the good news, health authorities will need to remain vigilant on the ground over the coming weeks in case further cases emerge. In addition, a search is under way for a person who had tested positive but escaped and was never heard from again.

If no new cases are detected within 42 days of the latter's discharge, the DRC may declare an official end to the outbreak, in accordance with the recommendations of the World Health Organization (WHO).

Already last April, when the country was only two days away from meeting the required deadline, a new positive forced the announcement to be postponed and, since then, the outbreak has left four dead.

In total, this epidemic - the worst in the history of the DRC and the second most serious worldwide after the one that affected West Africa from 2014 to 2016 - has left 3,462 cases, with 2,268 deaths, according to WHO data. It affected three provinces in the northeast of the country - Ituri, North Kivu and South Kivu - where control of the epidemic was hampered by the refusal of some communities to receive treatment and by the high level of insecurity in the area, where dozens of armed groups operate.