WHO declares ebola outbreak in south Sudan over

GENEVA, Aug 7 (AFP) — The World Health Organisation declared that a three-month outbreak of the deadly ebola virus in south Sudan, which killed seven people, was formally over.

“As 42 days is twice the maximum incubation period for Ebola, and as no further cases have been identified, WHO declares today that the outbreak in southern Sudan is over,” the agency said in a statement.

The last victim of the haemorragic fever died on June 26 in Yambio hospital in Sudan’s Western Equatoria region. The outbreak was first reported in late May.

Seventeen cases of Ebola were reported in Sudan, WHO said as it hailed the rapid containment of the outbreak thanks to close cooperation between the organisation, aid agencies and local authorities.

“In Yambio, WHO and our partners were able to apply lessons learned during responses to the five Ebola outbreaks that have occurred since 2000,” said Pierre Formenty, who worked on the response team.

The Sudan outbreak is the smallest that the agency has had to cope with in Africa since 2000, with the number of cases diminishing progressively from the 425 people who were infected in Uganda four years ago.

Different varieties of the ebola virus, whose victims bleed to death after their internal organs liquify, have different mortality rates, ranging from 50 to 90 percent.

The disease is highly infectious and easily transmitted through contact with the blood and other body fluids of victims, even when they are dead.

Health workers often face a race against time to try to trace people who have been in touch with victims and the challenge of convincing often isolated forest communities that they pose no threat to their traditions.

“Once the people of Yambio were convinced of the very real risks Ebola posed, and they understood what they could do to protect themselves and their families, the outbreak response was greatly accelerated,” said Asiya Odugleh of WHO.

The source and natural reservoir of the Ebola virus is still unknown, but it seems to be located in animals in the rainforests of central Africa and the western Pacific, according to the health agency.

The virus was first identified during outbreaks in the same province of Sudan and neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo, then Zaire, in 1976, when a total of 431 people died.