The Democratic Republic of the Congo’s (DRC)10th Ebola outbreak in North Kivu and Ituri provinces is coming to an end on 25 June 2020 if no new cases are detected. Huge efforts have been made to reach this milestone almost two years after the first cases in the area were reported on 1 August 2018. A wide range of responders: the DRC health authorities, World Health Organization (WHO), Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, UNICEF, the Red Cross movement and other international and local partners, donors, researchers and communities have worked hard to end the Ebola outbreak. Despite facing security challenges, emergency response teams fanned out into towns and villages across Ituri and North Kivu, setting up treatment centres, tracing contacts, vaccinating people, ferrying medicines and supplies and persuading communities to join the Ebola fight.
We feature some of the heroes behind the work to end the epidemic that claimed 2287 lives, with 3470 cases registered, making it the second-deadliest after the 2014 to 2016 Ebola outbreak in West Africa.
While the 10th Ebola outbreak comes to an end, the DRC is facing a new one in Equateur province, where the virus previously erupted in May 2018.