After 42 Days with No New Cases, Congo Declares End to Ebola Outbreak

By Associated Press | Published on July 3, 2017

Why Americans shouldn't freak out about Ebola

Map of Ebola in Africa

KINSHASA, Congo (AP) — Congo’s health minister has declared an end to the country’s Ebola outbreak.

Health Minister Oly Ilunga Kalenga said in a statement Saturday that Congo has officially gone 42 days with no new recorded cases of the deadly virus. The health minister says the outbreak killed four of the eight people infected.

Officials announced the outbreak in May, saying it began in Bas-Uele province in Congo’s remote northeast in the Likati zone, some 1,400 kilometers (870 miles) from the capital, Kinshasa.

The World Health Organization called it the eighth outbreak of the hemorrhagic fever in Congo since 1976.

None was connected to the massive outbreak in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone that left more than 11,300 dead. That outbreak was declared finished a year ago.

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