Five patients infected with a rare strain of Ebola have recovered in the Democratic Republic of Congo, World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus announced on Sunday during the inauguration of a new treatment centre in the eastern city of Bunia.
Speaking at the facility in Ituri province, the epicentre of the current outbreak, Tedros confirmed that four patients would be discharged on Sunday, while another had been released from hospital two days earlier. "Four people will be discharged today and there was one that was discharged the day before yesterday," Tedros was quoted as saying by the Associated Press.
"Of course, we're still working on vaccines and treatments but that doesn't mean that people cannot recover from Ebola," he added. The WHO had reported on Friday that a patient had recovered from the Bundibugyo strain of the virus, which currently has no approved vaccine or treatment. The organisation described this as the first documented recovery of a confirmed Bundibugyo patient during the ongoing outbreak.
According to the latest official figures cited by the WHO, there have been 906 suspected cases and 223 suspected deaths. Meanwhile, neighbouring Uganda has confirmed nine cases and one death, as reported by its health ministry. The announcement came amid warnings from aid agencies that the outbreak was spreading faster than response efforts. Doctors Without Borders (MSF) on Saturday called for expanded testing, faster deployment of aid workers, and uninterrupted access to medical supplies.
Health workers have also faced growing resistance from some communities, with anger over strict burial protocols for Ebola victims leading to at least three attacks on health facilities. During the opening ceremony, Tedros urged residents to seek medical care at the first sign of symptoms. "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," he 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," Tedros added. Pierre Akilimali, incident manager at Congo's National Institute of Public Health, shared a message of hope during the inauguration: "The final message we would like to share with the Ituri community is that there is hope."
