Ebola virus disease – Democratic Republic of the Congo

On 25 June 2020, the Minister of Health of the Democratic Republic of the Congo declared the end of the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) outbreak in North Kivu, Ituri and South Kivu Provinces. In accordance with WHO recommendations, the declaration was made more than 42 days after the last person who contracted EVD in this outbreak tested negative twice and was discharged from care. The outbreak was declared on 1 August 2018 following investigations and laboratory confirmation of a cluster of EVD cases in North Kivu Province. Further investigations identified cases in Ituri and North Kivu Provinces with dates of symptom onset from May to August 2018. In 2019, the outbreak subsequently spread to South Kivu Province, and on 17 July 2019, the WHO Director-General declared the outbreak a Public Health Emergency of International Concern. In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, 11 outbreaks have been recorded since the first recognized outbreak in 1976. The 10th EVD outbreak in North Kivu, Ituri and South Kivu Provinces was the country's longest EVD outbreak and the second largest in the world after the 2014 –2016 EVD outbreak in West Africa.
Source: WHO Disease Outbreaks - Category: Infectious Diseases Tags: news Source Type: news