WHO health workers vaccinating members of the pygmy community in Beni
BERLIN, Nov 16 (NNN-AGENCIES) — An outbreak of Ebola in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo should be eradicated by the end of 2019, Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi said.
The epidemic in Congo was declared in August 2018 and has so far killed about 2,100 people, making it the second-worst outbreak of the virus on record.
“There are still a few isolated cases in Ituri (province) but we think that by the end of the year we can completely stop that,” he said at a news conference in Berlin.
World Health Organization (WHO) officials say the number of people falling sick has significantly reduced in the last few months.
For the first time in a long time, a treatment centre in Butembo, another Ebola hotspot 57km south of Beni, discharged its last Ebola patient.
Ebola is no longer incurable. Treatments have been successful 90 percent of the time when symptoms were detected early.
People who were given the vaccine manufactured by Merck, a German pharmaceutical company, also have a high chance of not getting infected. The drug has been approved by the European regulators.
A second vaccine is now being used on people who do not live in high-risk areas. Made by another pharmaceutical giant, the US-based Johnson and Johnson, the vaccine is being given to people living along the border with Rwanda among others.
The latest vaccine is still in its experimental stage and undergoing the last phase of its clinical trial. Nearly half a million Congolese have been targeted for the study on the vaccine’s efficacy. The process may take up to 10 months. — NNN-AGENCIES
