An ebola outbreak declared over

This item appears on page 34 of the August 2020 issue.

An ebola outbreak in northeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) that began in August 2018 was declared, on June 25, to be over after no new cases had been discovered since April 27. However, a newer outbreak of ebola, which began on June 1, 2020, is still ongoing in the country’s northwest.

During the course of the northeastern outbreak, more than 2,200 people died of the disease, making it the worst ebola outbreak ever in the DRC and the second-worst outbreak to occur overall. The World Health Organization attributes the end of the outbreak to the hard work of health workers and the use of new vaccines to limit the spread.