The country of 100 million people declared on May 15 that it was battling a major epidemic of the contagious haemorrhagic fever, prompting the World Health Organization to issue an international health alert.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus travelled to the epicentre of the outbreak on Saturday, and spoke to Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi on Monday.
Out of 321 confirmed cases of infection, 48 deaths have been recorded, according to Congolese health authorities and the WHO.
Fifteen cases, including one death, have also been reported in neighbouring Uganda, according to the Ugandan Ministry of Health.
On Tuesday, the WHO reported that the number of suspected cases had declined to 116 from 906 late last week, based on information provided by the Congolese authorities.
A report released on Friday by the African Union’s health agency, Africa CDC, had cited 1,139 suspected cases, including 246 deaths probably caused by the disease.
Many patients “have been cleared out” from the data after having been shown to have other diseases with similar early symptoms or an unlinked fever, WHO spokesman Christian Lindmeier said in Geneva.
Few laboratory tests have been carried out, mainly due to a lack of resources in the DRC, which is one of the world’s poorest countries and has suffered decades of violent conflict in its restive east.
The Congolese government, which recently announced the recovery of several patients, has in recent days launched a major communication campaign to assure the public that “the situation is under control.”
In Kenya, violent protests broke out on Monday over an Ebola quarantine facility reserved for US patients arriving from the DRC.
Demonstrators voiced anger at the United States using Kenyan soil and bringing Ebola patients into the country.
They were met with tear gas from police.
Rights group Vocal Africa said on Tuesday a 27-year-old man had been “shot and killed” during the protests, dying “on the spot.” The group later said a second person had also died.
Police said they could not confirm the deaths.
Kenyan President William Ruto defended the facility, saying it was “part of a broader national preparedness system” and adding that it “will be there to serve the people of Kenya and to serve our friends, including the Americans.”
The outbreak was declared in the province of Ituri, in northeastern DRC.
No vaccine or approved treatment is available for the strain of Ebola behind the current outbreak, known as the Bundibugyo virus, and efforts to contain its spread rely mainly on preventative measures.
Most large Ebola outbreaks known in the past have been caused by the Zaire virus, the only one for which a vaccine is licensed.
Ebola, which is passed on through close contact and bodily fluids, has killed more than 15,000 people in Africa over the past 50 years.
The deadliest outbreak in the DRC claimed nearly 2,300 lives out of 3,500 cases between 2018 and 2020.
Africa CDC says it hopes a Bundibugyo vaccine will be ready by the end of the year.
The health risk is “high” for countries neighbouring the DRC, but remains “low” at the global level, according to the WHO.
On May 23, the authorities suspended all commercial flights to and from the airport in Bunia, the capital of Ituri, allowing only medical and humanitarian planes in.
Health Minister Samuel Roger Kamba said the authorities needed to put health measures in place to protect travellers.
On Tuesday, the transport ministry said the authorities had assessed how the outbreak was being monitored and concluded “conditions are now in place for a gradual and safe resumption of flights.”
“The reopening of Bunia airport is a good sign for the response. It will allow the rapid deployment of health personnel,” said Marie Roseline Belizaire, director of emergencies for WHO Africa, speaking from Bunia. (AFP)
Edited by Cecil Wong
