Ebola
DR Congo announces end of latest Ebola epidemic
The World Health Organization said the latest outbreak had killed 55 people among 119 confirmed and 11 probable cases since it began in June.
Fifty-three people have lost their lives since June in what has been the 11th outbreak of Ebola in the vast central African country since 1976.
Fifty-three people have lost their lives since June in what has been the 11th outbreak of Ebola in the vast central African country since 1976.
The year-long probe by the Thomson Reuters Foundation and The New Humanitarian news organisation took testimony from more than 50 women.
WHO emergencies expert Mike Ryan said another three cases were detected at the weekend, making a total of 56 confirmed and four probable infections in an outbreak announced last month in Congo’s Equateur province.
Since authorities announced the outbreak on June 1, 48 cases have been confirmed in Congo’s Equateur province, with a further three probable cases and a total of 20 deaths, WHO’s top emergencies expert Mike Ryan said.
The outbreak declared in north Kivu in August 2018, was the second-largest in the world and was compounded by the active conflict zone in that region.
More than 2,000 people were killed by the outbreak out of 3,470 cases.
The Ebola cases have been confirmed in seven health zones across Equateur, including two cases in Bolomba, 300 km northeast of Mbandaka, the World Health Organization said in an update.
There have now been nine confirmed cases and three probable cases of the disease in and around Mbandaka, the WHO said. Six of those people have died, it added.
Six people have died of the much-feared haemorrhagic virus since 1 June, when the first cases came to light in Mbandaka, capital of Equateur province.
Indifference or disbelief towards COVID-19 runs deep in the Democratic Republic of Congo's capital -- a response that strikes fear into watchdogs battling the disease.
The appearance of the deadly disease on the other side of the vast central African country comes as an added blow as it attempts to also battle the coronavirus pandemic.
What the consequences of school closures during Africa's 'longest, largest and deadliest' Ebola outbreak can teach the continent.
The outbreak has killed more than 2,200 people since August 2018 in an area of the country where militia violence hobbled efforts to contain it.
In 2015, Sierra Leone banned pregnant girls from going to school after a surge in sexual violence and teenage pregnancies driven by the Ebola crisis.
Earth's poorest continent has so far confirmed around 1,800 cases and 57 deaths -- a tally that is low compared with Europe, the Middle East and Asia, but is now ratcheting up quickly as testing remains patchy.
The Central African nation has one only confirmed COVID-19 case so far, but fears linger after an Ebola epidemic in 1995 wiped out more than 90% of the gorillas in the verdant north.
It's a matter of scale, writes Rebecca SB Fischer.