With a new case, DR Congo is not done with the Ebola epidemic

The counters are reset in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The country will have to wait at least 42 days before proclaiming the end of the Ebola epidemic, which it hoped for on Monday. A new case was declared Friday April 10, three days before the deadline.

Affected like the rest of the world by the coronavirus, the DRC thought it could turn the page of its other epidemic. The country has counted the number of days without new cases since the last patient's discharge from an Ebola Treatment Center (ETC) on March 3.

The countdown was interrupted on Friday with the announcement of the death of a 26-year-old Ebola victim in Beni territory. This eastern city is one of the epicenters of the hemorrhagic fever epidemic, which has killed 2,273 people since its declaration on August 1, 2018 in the country.

"I called a meeting of the emergency committee on the Ebola epidemic in the DRC. After 52 days without any cases, the surveillance and response teams in the field confirmed a new case," said on Twitter. the director of the World Health Organization (WHO) Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

Today I convened a meeting of the Emergency Committee on #Ebola in #DRC. After 52 days without a case, surveillance & response teams on the ground have confirmed a new case. We have been preparing for and expecting more cases.

Unfortunately, this means that the DRC government will not be able to declare the end of the Ebola epidemic on Monday, as we had hoped, "he added.

"We just have to leave for 42 days"

An emergency committee "met today by teleconference to determine whether the epidemic continues to be a public health emergency of international concern," said WHO.

"We just have to leave for 42 days," said WHO emergency director Michael Ryan from Geneva.

Indeed, the WHO considers that it is necessary to wait twice for the time of incubation of the virus (21 days maximum) without new cases to proclaim the end of an Ebola epidemic.

The new victim is said to have died on Thursday in Beni territory. "Preliminary information shows that he is a 26-year-old man," the Congolese team of the epidemic response committee said in a statement.

"Our teams, in collaboration with the WHO, are already on the ground to deepen the investigations and implement public health actions," added this press release.

Mode of contamination, duration of symptoms, number of contacts, "community" death among relatives or in the hospital, burial secure or not: many epidemiological questions remain officially pending around this new case.

The territory of Beni also has at least one case of new coronavirus, out of the 215 officially declared in the DRC since March 10. The Ebola rebound in Beni is "maybe" a lesson for the Covid-19, said the WHO emergency director: "There is no exit strategy until you control the situation. You should always be ready to back up and go again. "

Many NGOs and partners in the DRC have assured that they continue to support the country.

With 2,273 deaths, the tenth Ebola outbreak on Congolese soil is the second most serious since the identification of the hemorrhagic fever virus in 1976.

With AFP

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