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The World Health Organisation (WHO) on Friday announced the first confirmed recovery from the ongoing Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
WHO technical officer on viral haemorrhagic fevers, Anais Legand, said a patient who tested positive for Ebola recovered and was discharged from the hospital on May 27 after returning two negative test results.
She explained that while this was the first officially confirmed recovery, there were likely to have been other recoveries among suspected patients whose laboratory results had not yet been confirmed.
“The DRC has said that on May 27, a patient recovered and left the hospital and has been discharged into the community,” Legand told reporters.
“This is the first one to be discharged from a care centre following two negative tests”, she said.
According to the WHO, the outbreak, which was declared on May 15, has so far recorded 17 confirmed deaths and 223 suspected deaths out of 125 confirmed cases and more than 900 suspected cases.
The current outbreak is linked to the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola, for which there is no approved vaccine or specific treatment.
The WHO noted that the strain has a fatality rate of up to 50 per cent, although the rate in the current outbreak appears to be below 25 per cent and remains subject to change.
Legand stressed that early access to medical care significantly improves survival chances and expressed optimism that more patients would recover.
“We are expecting more people to recover,” she said.
