Congo announces end to 2nd deadliest Ebola outbreak ever Congo's health ministry and the World Health Organization have declared an end to the second deadliest Ebola outbreak in historyBENI, Congo -- Eastern Congo marked an official end Thursday to the second deadliest Ebola outbreak in history, which killed 2,280 people over nearly two years, as armed rebels and community mistrust undermined the promise of new vaccines. Thursday's milestone was overshadowed, though, by the enormous health challenges still facing Congo: the world's largest measles epidemic, the rising threat of COVID-19 and another new Ebola outbreak in the north. Only a few years earlier, West Africa’s Ebola epidemic killed more than 11,000, as at that time there was no licensed vaccine or treatment. By the time of the eastern Congo outbreak there was not one but two new experimental vaccines to ward off the disease that kills about half its victims. After more than a quarter century of conflict, though, distrust of government health workers and other outsiders was exceptionally high in eastern Congo.

Source: ABC News June 25, 2020 11:20 UTC