Goma (DR Congo) (AFP)
Ebola haemorrhagic fever killed 1.905 people in a year in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where 844 patients were declared cured, according to figures released Thursday by Congolese health authorities.
"Since the beginning of the epidemic, the cumulative number of cases is 2,842, of which 2,748 confirmed and 94 probable.In total, there were 1,990 deaths (1,811 confirmed and 94 probable) and 844 people healed," said the ministry. Health in its bulletin on the situation of the epidemic dated Wednesday.
The epidemic declared on August 1, 2018 is so far contained in the province of North Kivu (Beni, Butembo-Katwa, Goma) and marginally in that of Ituri. Two cases have nonetheless been recorded in neighboring Uganda.
"We have two treatments now, mAb114 and REGN-EB3, so these are the two molecules that we are going to use, because according to the results we have obtained so far, these are the two molecules that are effective. ", explained Tuesday Professor Jean-Jacques Muyembe, coordinator of the fight against Ebola in the DRC.
US health authorities, who co-funded an Ebola treatment study, said on Monday that the two drugs significantly boosted the survival rate of patients in a clinical trial in the DRC, which has doubled.
According to the experts, among the approximately 500 people whose data were analyzed (out of a total of 681 participants), mortality fell to 29% with REGN-EB3 and 34% with mAb114. Whereas for people not taking any treatment, the mortality rate is between 60 and 67%.
The UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), however, warned in a statement on Thursday that "the number of children orphaned by Ebola or left unaccompanied is growing as fast as the epidemic itself."
The DRC is fighting the tenth Ebola outbreak on its soil since the outbreak of the disease in 1976.
The virus is transmitted to humans by certain wild animals, then through humans through direct and close contact, via the bodily fluids of a sick person.
The efforts of the response are regularly disrupted by insecurity in an area infested by many armed groups but also by community resistance: denial of the disease, non-compliance with specific health measures (secure burial of victims in particular).
© 2019 AFP