Congo declares the end of Ebola outbreak

The Democratic Republic of Congo recently declared the end of the twelfth outbreak of Ebola. It had killed six people in the eastern province of North Kivu.

About Ebola Outbreak

• The current Ebola outbreak was genetically linked to that of the outbreak that occured in 2018-20.
• Currently, Guinea is also fighting against Ebola epidemic.
• The Ebola virus was discovered in 1976. The 2014-16 outbreak of Ebola in West Africa is the largest Ebola outbreak since its discovery.
• In June 2019, the World Health Organisation declared outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo as Global Health Emergency.

Global Health Emergency

The Global Health Emergency is declared when a disease outbreak is risk to other countries. It requires a coordinated international response.

Ebola virus

• The Ebola virus transmits from wild animals to people. It spreads among human population through human-to-human population.
• The natural hosts of Ebola virus are the fruit bats.
• The methods used to diagnose Ebola are ELISA, Serum neutralization test, electron microscopy, virus isolation by cell culture, reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), antigen capture detection tests.
• The fatality rate of Ebola is 50%.

In 2019, WHO declared Ebola as one of the top ten threats to Global Health in 2019. The other threats were non-communicable diseases, air pollution, climate change, global influenza pandemic, anti-microbial resistance, weak primary health care, vaccine hesitancy, HIV, and fragile and vulnerable settings.

Ebola Vaccines

• rVSV-ZEBOV was an Ebola vaccine used in Guinea in 2015.
• It was also used during 2018-19 Ebola outbreak in Congo.
• The vaccine is administered to pregnant women and breastfeeding women under the same condition as that of the general population.

Month: Current Affairs - April, 2021