Ebola virus disease – Democratic Republic of the Congo

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No new confirmed cases of Ebola virus disease (EVD) have been reported in Ituri, North Kivu and South Kivu Provinces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo since 27 April 2020 (Figure 1). While this is a positive development, there remains a risk of re-emergence of EVD. It is critical to maintain surveillance and response operations in the period leading up to the declaration of the end of the outbreak, as well as after the declaration – as outlined in the WHO recommended criteria for declaring the end of the EVD outbreak .

From 11 to 16 June 2020, an average of 2939 alerts were reported per day, of which 2788 (about 95%) were investigated within 24 hours. Of these, an average of 453 alerts were validated as suspected cases each day, requiring specialized care and laboratory testing to rule-out EVD. The number of reported and validated alerts has remained stable in recent weeks. Timely testing of suspected cases continues to be provided from eight laboratories. From 8 to 14 June 2020, 3219 samples were tested including 2513 blood samples from alive, suspected cases; 324 swabs from community deaths; and 382 samples from re-tested patients. Overall, the number of samples tested by the laboratories increased by 3% compared to the previous week.

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