The World Health Organisation (WHO) on Friday confirmed the first recorded recovery of a patient diagnosed with Ebola amid the ongoing outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
Speaking to reporters, WHO official Anais Legand said:
“The DRC has said that on May 27, a patient recovered and left the hospital and has been discharged into the community,” the WHO’s Anais Legand told reporters.
She described the case as the first known discharge of a confirmed Ebola patient, while noting that other unconfirmed cases may also have recovered but were not yet verified through laboratory testing.
“This is the first one” to be discharged from a care centre “following two negative tests”, she said.
Legand also provided updated figures on the outbreak, stating that the WHO has recorded 17 confirmed and 223 suspected Ebola-related deaths in the DRC since the outbreak was declared on May 15. She added that there have been 125 confirmed cases alongside more than 900 suspected infections.
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The current outbreak is linked to the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola, for which no approved vaccine or specific treatment exists. The strain can have a case fatality rate of up to 50 percent.
However, Legand noted that the fatality rate among confirmed cases in this outbreak currently appears to be below 25 percent, though she cautioned that the figure is still evolving.
A technical officer on viral haemorrhagic fevers at the WHO, she emphasised the importance of timely treatment in improving survival outcomes.
“We are expecting more people to recover,” she said.