WHO confirms end of latest Congolese Ebola outbreak

By Godfrey Olukya

ARU, Democratic Republic of Congo (AA) - The World Health Organization (WHO) on Tuesday confirmed a recent Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) was over.

The announcement comes 42 days since the last confirmed Ebola patient in the Bas-Uele province tested negative for the disease for a second time.

WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a statement: “With the end of this epidemic, DRC has once again proved to the world that we can control the very deadly Ebola virus if we respond early in a coordinated and efficient way.”

The organization confirmed that at least four people died in the last outbreak and more than 580 were thought to be carrying the disease but later tested negative.

Likati, a remote area bordering the Central African Republic, was the origin of the outbreak -- the DRC’s eighth.

In 2014, 66 people were infected by the disease and 49 died, according to WHO numbers.

Ebola caused global alarm in 2013 when the world's worst outbreak began in West Africa, killing more than 11,300 people and infecting an estimated 28,600 as it swept through Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone.