Ebola recoveries bring signs of hope in DRC as suspected cases emerge outside Africa

Four nurses who were being treated for Ebola caused by the Bundibugyo strain of the virus have been discharged from a hospital in Bunia in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) after recovering from the disease, the World Health Organization said on May 31.

More recoveries are expected, especially when people are diagnosed early and able to access care, and as the response to the outbreak intensifies.

A laboratory worker also recovered earlier last week, the agency said, bringing the total number of people who have recovered from the virus to five. However, suspected cases are being looked into in Brazil and Italy tied to travel to affected nations.

The number of confirmed Ebola cases in the country has increased to 282, with 42 deaths, after 19 new positive test results were recorded, according to data distributed by the Communications Ministry.

Earlier in May, the WHO declared the outbreak caused by the rare Bundibugyo version of the virus in the DRC and Uganda a public health emergency of international concern, although it does not meet the criteria of a pandemic emergency.

WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, while on a May 30 visit to Bunia – the capital of the eastern Congolese province of Ituri – noted that although there currently is no licensed vaccine or treatment for Ebola caused by the Bundibugyo virus, “it is not without hope” as the disease can be survived with good medical care.

Suspected cases outside Africa

The outbreak – the 17th in Congo and the third-largest since Ebola was discovered half a century ago – is outpacing the global response, which got off to a late start.

“The risk of regional spread is already happening,” Jean Kaseya, director-general of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, said in a Financial Times op-ed published on May 31. It said that more than 1,100 suspected cases are being investigated.

In Brazil, a man with a suspected case of Ebola in Sao Paulo tested positive for meningitis. Another suspected case emerged in Rio de Janeiro, where the patient tested positive for malaria, local health authorities said on May 31. In neither case does the diagnosis rule out the possibility of Ebola, they said.

In the Sao Paulo case, a man from the Democratic Republic of Congo presented with a fever after recently visiting the African country, while in Rio the patient had recently traveled to Uganda.

In Italy, protocols for a suspected case of Ebola were triggered in Sardinia’s capital Cagliari for a man who had flown back from Congo on May 30 with some symptoms, but the health ministry said early on June 1 that he had tested negative.

“We confirm that the risk (of Ebola) in Italy remains very low,” the ministry said. REUTERS