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BUNIA, Congo — In a promising development amidst an outbreak, five individuals have successfully recovered from a rare strain of Ebola, according to the World Health Organization’s chief, who made the announcement on Sunday while visiting Bunia, a key city in eastern Congo.
“Today, four individuals will be released, and one more was discharged the day before yesterday,” stated WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. His remarks came during the inauguration of a new Ebola treatment facility in Bunia, the capital of the Ituri province.
He emphasized, “While we continue to advance vaccines and treatments, it’s important to note that recovery from Ebola is indeed possible.”
The WHO reported on Friday that a patient had successfully overcome the Bundibugyo virus, the specific Ebola strain involved in the current outbreak, which presently lacks any approved treatments or vaccines. This marks the first recorded recovery of a confirmed Bundibugyo case in this outbreak.
According to the latest official statistics from the WHO, there are 906 suspected cases and 223 suspected fatalities. Additionally, neighboring Uganda has reported nine confirmed cases and one death, as announced by the Ugandan Health Ministry on Friday.
The virus continues to spread faster than the response despite better-organized health facilities and new aid arrivals, Doctors Without Borders, or MSF, said Saturday, calling for the immediate expansion of testing, faster deployment of aid workers and sustained access for medical supplies.
The dangers faced by health workers have been heightened by anger among residents over the stringent medical protocols for handling the victims’ bodies, which clash with local burial rites. Residents have launched at least three attacks against health centers.
Tedros stressed the importance of involving the community in the outbreak response during the opening of the new treatment center on Sunday.
“If you come to health facilities when you have symptoms, you can get the support and recover, so the key is to come forward as early as possible and to get the necessary support,” the WHO chief said.
“We can stop this Ebola and anyone who has it can also recover. But the rule … is this thing is everybody’s business and every citizen should be involved,” he added.
Attacks in the region by the Allied Democratic Forces, a rebel group allied with the Islamic State group, and a coalition of ethnic militias have also hindered the response.
ADF fighters killed seven people Saturday in Beni, North Kivu province, an area also affected by the outbreak, the Congolese army and civil society groups said.
The illness also has been reported in both North Kivu and South Kivu, south of Ituri, where the Rwanda-backed M23 rebel group controls many key cities, including Goma and Bukavu.
“The final message we would like to share with the Ituri community is that there is hope,” Pierre Akilimali, Incident Manager at Congo’s National Institute of Public Health, said during the inauguration on Sunday.
“With the symptomatic treatment that we are currently providing, we are seeing patients recover,” Akilimali added.
“We truly have hope. The virus here is not as complicated as those we have dealt with in the past, and with the support of all our partners, we believe we will be able to bring this outbreak under control as quickly as possible,” said Davin Ambitapio, another doctor at the treatment center.