CGTN – Five patients infected with the Ebola Bundibugyo virus have recovered in Bunia, the capital of Ituri Province in northeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), health authorities said on Sunday.
Four of the recovered patients, all medical workers, were discharged on Sunday from an Ebola treatment center in Bunia after testing negative twice for Ebola, while another patient, a laboratory worker, had already returned home, according to the DRC’s National Institute of Public Health.
World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus was present in Bunia for the inauguration of a new Ebola treatment center and hailed the recoveries.
“We are still working on vaccines and treatments, but that does not mean that people cannot recover from Ebola,” Tedros said.
The recoveries came as the DRC stepped up laboratory testing and case management in affected areas. DRC Health Minister Roger Kamba said on Saturday that there were no pending samples awaiting laboratory testing, stressing that response teams were continuing surveillance, contact tracing and case verification.
The DRC Health Ministry said on Sunday that 263 confirmed cases had been reported in the country as of May 29, including 42 deaths among confirmed cases.
Director-General of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention Jean Kaseya said on Sunday that more than 1,100 test results were still pending as of May 30.
Outside Africa, suspected Ebola cases have been investigated in Brazil and Italy after travelers return from Africa, Reuters reported.
Last week, a Kenyan court ordered the temporary suspension of a plan for the United States to set up an Ebola quarantine facility in the country after a lawsuit argued the site could endanger public health. The plan to bring in Americans exposed to the outbreak in eastern DRC and Uganda has drawn sharp opposition among many Kenyans since it came to light earlier.
Since the outbreak began in mid-May, several countries have strengthened border measures to prevent the spread of the disease.
Tedros has called for stronger community trust and international solidarity in the response to the Ebola outbreak, warning that travel bans and border closures could make the fight against the disease more difficult.
Speaking at a joint press conference with Congolese officials in Bunia, the epicenter of the outbreak, Tedros said on Saturday that he came to the area to show that people in the provinces of Ituri, North Kivu and South Kivu, and across the DRC, “are not alone.”
“We are not here to tell people what to do. We are here to listen,” Tedros said, stressing that communities understand their own challenges and are often best placed to identify solutions.
The WHO chief said community ownership, government leadership and international support would be key to ending the outbreak, which has spread across three eastern provinces, Ituri, North Kivu and South Kivu, in a region already strained by insecurity, population movement and humanitarian needs.
Kamba said the best-case scenario would be to contain the outbreak within the three affected provinces and avoid wider spread. He said authorities hope to bring the epidemic under control within four to six months, based on the country’s experience with previous Ebola outbreaks and the disease’s incubation period.
He added that the DRC has previously controlled multiple epidemics, including Ebola and mpox, and expects the international community to trust the country’s response capacity.
The current outbreak is caused by the Bundibugyo virus, a less common Ebola species for which no licensed vaccine or specific treatment currently exists.
Patients infected with Bundibugyo Ebola can survive if they receive timely and quality medical care, Tedros said. He also said the WHO is working with partners to advance safe and effective vaccines and treatments through clinical trials.
On testing, Kamba said laboratory capacity had been strengthened after earlier delays. Around 900 samples had been tested, with about 260 positive cases identified, he said, noting that the response now has the capacity to process incoming samples and aims to conduct 200 to 300 tests per day.
Tedros and Kamba both stressed that basic public health measures remain crucial, including hand hygiene, accurate information, contact tracing, laboratory testing, patient care, and safe and dignified burials.
The WHO chief warned that mistrust, misinformation and disinformation remain major challenges. He said public messaging must be coordinated among the government, the WHO and other partners, and must be based on science, evidence and data.
(With input from Xinhua, Reuters)
