Three patients, including a nurse, were discharged from an Ebola treatment centre in Beni on Saturday after recovering from the disease, offering a sign of hope as the epidemic continues to spread ‘exponentially’ in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).
Footage shows staff distributing certificates to the recovered patients to mark their discharge.
“The disease is real,” said survivor Musa Vihamba Jerome. “People must stop saying that doctors are killing patients in hospitals because of Ebola. Doctors are ready to take care of everyone.”
Joseph Sabuni, president of the Mulekera Municipal Community Committee, urged residents not to heed rumours about the disease, calling the survivors ‘living proof that people can recover’.
“If there are still people who believe these rumours, saying that Ebola does not exist or that it is simply a matter of money, they should see the survivors leaving the treatment centres,” Sabuni pleaded.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has identified delayed detection and limited access to countermeasures as some of the major obstacles in controlling the outbreak.
“We are urging the population to accept early medical care because, with this disease, when a patient is treated in time, before severe symptoms appear and while the disease is not yet in its acute phase, the chances of recovery are very high,” said Dr Kakule Kaingilo, head of healthcare providers at the Ebola Treatment Centre at Beni General Referral Hospital.
The outbreak, which is caused by the Bundibugyo virus and was declared in May, has recorded 5,375 confirmed cases and 2,557 deaths in the DRC, according to figures reported by health authorities.
The DRC also received its first 16,000 doses of the Ervebo vaccine in Kinshasa on Friday as part of a 70,000-dose allocation approved for the country by the global Ebola vaccine stockpile.
Ervebo is approved against the Zaire Ebola virus but not the Bundibugyo strain driving the latest outbreak, and WHO says there is still insufficient evidence to determine whether it provides protection against that strain.
Source: Viory
