World Health Organization (WHO) has announced the first recovery of a confirmed Ebola patient in the ongoing outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
Gatekeepers News reports that Anais Legand, a WHO technical officer on viral haemorrhagic fevers, while speaking on Friday, confirmed that the patient was discharged after recovering from the disease.
“The DRC has said that on May 27, a patient recovered and left the hospital and has been discharged into the community,” Legand told reporters.
She described the development as the “first” recovery among laboratory-confirmed Ebola patients in the current outbreak, while noting that there may have been additional recoveries among suspected cases awaiting confirmation.
“This is the first one” to be discharged from a care centre “following two negative tests”, she added.
According to the WHO, the DRC has so far recorded 17 confirmed Ebola deaths and 223 suspected deaths since the outbreak was officially declared on May 15.
The organisation said there have been 125 confirmed cases and more than 900 suspected infections linked to the outbreak.
Health officials explained that the current outbreak is being driven by the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola, for which there is currently no approved vaccine or specific treatment.
The strain is known to have a fatality rate of up to 50 percent, although WHO officials said the current outbreak appears to have a mortality rate below 25 percent among confirmed cases.
Legand stressed that early medical intervention remains critical to improving survival chances.
“We are expecting more people to recover,” she said.
