Kinshasa (AFP)
Fewer new infections, more than 1,000 cures: Two rare good news was reported Friday about the fight against the Ebola outbreak that killed 2,137 people in 14 months in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.
"From 10 to 20 cases of contamination per day, the figure has passed Wednesday to one," said a statement from the Prime Minister's Office.
This one case of contamination was recorded in the province of Ituri, according to the daily bulletin of the Congolese health authorities.
No cases of contamination were recorded that same day in North Kivu province, by far the most affected by the epidemic.
But the anti-Ebola teams need "financial support", not to "demotivate the staff engaged in the fight in the field," the statement added.
The text was written after a meeting of Prime Minister Sylvestre Ilunga with the leader of the Ebola response, Professor Jean-Jacques Muyembe.
The Congolese authorities also welcome the "healing and effective molecule discovered" by Dr. Muyembe.
An allusion to the mAb114 treatment, discovered by Professor Muyembe in 1995 and used in this epidemic.
For its part, the World Health Organization (WHO) hailed a "memorable day" in the DRC "celebrating its 1,000 survivors" cured of the Ebola outbreak.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres showed an example of an Ebola survivor during a visit to a September treatment center in North Kivu on September 1. "Those who come here can heal. everyone, do not hide the symptoms.
The current Ebola outbreak is the tenth highest on Congolese soil since 1976 and the second worst in history after some 11,000 deaths in West Africa in 2014.
It was declared on August 1, 2018 in Mangina. The epidemic killed 2,137 people.
© 2019 AFP