Separate Ebola outbreak in Democratic Republic of Congo declared over by WHO. -Reuters.

Health workers training in the Congo. Reuters

The 2nd outbreak of Ebola virus has officially been declared to be over by the World Health Organization. -Reuters. No new cases of Ebola have been detected in the Democratic Republic of Congo for the past 42 days, twice as many as the diseases incubation period. The seventh outbreak of the disease in the Democratic Republic of Congo killed 49 people and infected a total of 66. The outbreak had occurred in the remote province of Equateur and did not spread beyond the local area. Though the same species of Ebola virus, the Congo outbreak is considered separate from the West African outbreak which has spread to eight countries and killed thousands. 

My Comment:

Great news out of the Democratic Republic of Congo. It wasn't really unexpected though. After the initial outbreak I had heard almost nothing about this since it was first reported. The Democratic Republic of Congo did very well to stop the outbreak in its tracks. It had some factors in its favor though. 

1. They had dealt with Ebola before. Like the article said this is the seventh time they have had to deal with this disease. They had plenty of trained doctors, some with experience with the disease. 

2. The outbreak was in the middle of nowhere. A major reason that the outbreak in West Africa was so severe was because they reached major cities including capital cities. With the area being so isolated there was little chance of that happening. 

3. Everyone was on edge from the second Ebola outbreak in West Africa. Everyone was on their game so isolation and contact tracing was much easier.

Either way this is great news. News about Ebola has been pretty up and down lately. The disease spreading even faster in Sierra Leone and spreading to yet another country, Mali. Greater outbreaks were avoided in the United States and Spain and it seems that the virus may be loosing steam in Liberia. Time will tell if we have reached the turning point or not. I'm not yet to the point where I'm at all optimistic about the disease but there is at least hope now.