The Democratic Republic of Congo is close to declaring itself free of Ebola health

The World Health Organization announced the release of the last Ebola patient from the treatment center in Kasai Province in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, in a step described as a landmark achievement that paves the way for the start of the countdown to announcing the end of the recent outbreak of the disease.

The organization said that the recovered patient is the 19th case that has recovered out of 64 infections recorded since the outbreak of the epidemic was announced on September 4 of last year.

She stressed that the next 42 days will be crucial, as the end of the outbreak will be officially announced if no new infections are recorded.

Geographic challenges and historical context

Although the remote nature of Kasai Province posed a challenge for response teams, it also helped limit the spread of the virus to other areas.

Since it was first discovered in 1976 in the Congo, the Ebola virus has caused 16 outbreaks within the country, the most serious of which was between 2014 and 2016 in West Africa, when it infected more than 28,000 people and killed 11,000.

The most recent outbreak before the current one was in 2022, and was limited to only one case.

The decisive countdown

While no new infections have been recorded since September 25, caution remains in place until the monitoring period ends.

According to the US Centers for Disease Control, the death rate may reach 90% in the absence of treatment.

Health officials hope that the Democratic Republic of Congo’s success in containing the recent outbreak will serve as a model for dealing with epidemics, especially in areas with fragile health infrastructure.

The recovery of the last Ebola patient in this country opens the door to an official announcement of the end of the 16-year-old outbreak, if no new infections are recorded during the next 6 weeks.