Members of Doctors without borders NGO set up an Ebola treatment isolation unit at the Mubende regional referral hospital in Ugandan. (Photo by BADRU KATUMBA / AFP)
The Democratic Republic of Congo on Tuesday declared an end to an Ebola virus outbreak that emerged in eastern North Kivu province six weeks ago, the World Health Organization said.
Only one case of the virus had been confirmed, according to a WHO statement, making the DRC’s Ebola outbreak its “least catastrophic”.
Five people died during the previous outbreak — the central African nation’s 14th — which ended in July.
Ebola is an often fatal viral haemorrhagic fever. The disease is named after a river in DRC where it was discovered in 1976.
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Human transmission is through body fluids, with the main symptoms being fever, vomiting, bleeding and diarrhoea.
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The DRC’s latest outbreak ends as its neighbour Uganda “races to curb” an Ebola outbreak of its own, according to the WHO.
Uganda’s health ministry has said that Ebola has claimed five lives so far and is the probable but still unconfirmed cause of another 18 deaths.
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