The World Health Organization (WHO) office in the African country announced on Twitter that the thirteenth outbreak of the Ebola virus disease in Beni, North Kivu, has ended.

Since the first cases were detected on October 8, there have been 11 people affected and six deaths in an area that experienced one of the deadliest outbreaks in 2018 since the detection of the disease in 1976.

The end of the epidemic occurred 42 days (two incubation periods) after the last positive patient tested negative.

WHO Africa Director Matshidiso Moeti highlighted in a statement that during this outbreak, the DRC applied decisive lessons learned from previous emergencies.

As part of the response, some 1,800 people in the area were immunized with the Ervebo vaccine, an injectable solution recently developed from a genetically modified protein from the recombinant vesicular stomatitis virus.

pgh/lcr