Too early to declare DR Congo Ebola outbreak under control, says Africa CDC

Kinshasa: The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) said on Thursday that it remains too early to declare the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) under control, despite signs of stabilisation in recent weeks.

"We're still early to say that we're controlling the whole outbreak," Wessam Mankoula, an Africa CDC official, told an online press briefing, Xinhua News Agency reported.

According to the latest government situation report published Thursday, the DRC had recorded 6,250 confirmed cases and 3,039 deaths as of Sept. 1, with a case fatality rate of 48.6 per cent. A total of 1,439 patients have recovered. The outbreak has affected 60 health zones across six provinces.

Four health zones have interrupted transmission after reporting no new cases for more than 42 days, while another five have gone between 21 and 42 days without a new case. Transmission, however, remains active in 51 health zones, Mankoula said.

"For the last two weeks, we are seeing a decline in the number of cases," Mankoula said, cautioning that "it's very early to say we have a sustained decline in this outbreak."

Mankoula also warned that more than 60 per cent of deaths recorded over the past seven days occurred in communities, pointing to continued delays in detection and challenges in seeking medical care.

The death toll from the outbreak has surpassed 3,000, as the United Nations (UN) warned that the virus is spreading faster than response efforts.

As of Aug. 31, the DRC had recorded 6,186 confirmed cases and 3,007 deaths, according to an official situation report. A total of 1,409 patients have recovered, while 830 others remain in isolation or Ebola treatment centres.

The outbreak has affected 60 health zones across the six provinces of Ituri, North Kivu, Haut-Uele, Tshopo, South Kivu and Bas-Uele. Ituri remains the epicentre, accounting for 81.9 per cent of all confirmed cases nationwide.

The current outbreak, declared in May, has since become the country's largest and deadliest Ebola epidemic on record and the second-largest globally, behind the 2014-2016 epidemic in West Africa.

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