Africa’s latest Ebola outbreak comes to swift end

An outbreak of the Ebola virus that began in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in early May has been declared over by the country's health ministry.

The outbreak was centered in remote rural regions of the northwestern Équateur Province, but cases were also reported in mid-May in Mbandaka, a city with a population of more than one million people that sits on the banks of the Congo River, a major transport route.

Learning from mistakes in that outbreak, the World Health Organization and other public-health bodies quickly gave the DRC support - including helping to deploy, for the first time early in an outbreak, several thousands of doses of an experimental Ebola vaccine.

The outbreak is the DRC's ninth since the first ever known outbreak of Ebola virus occurred in the nation in 1976.The country has since become experienced at swiftly implementing the public-health measures needed to contain the virus's spread, such as identifying new infections, monitoring and isolating people with whom infected people have had contact, and carrying out safe burials.

Previous Ebola outbreaks in the DRC have also been contained in a matter of months.

Also read: Is Ebola Outbreak Out Of Control ?