Ebola DRC 2018

About Ebola DRC 2018

The 2018 to 2020 Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo was the second largest Ebola outbreak in history. The outbreak occurred in North Kivu and Ituri provinces, an active conflict zone with many armed groups. There were 3,470 cases and 2,287 deaths. The conflict complicated contact tracing, safe burials, and vaccination campaigns. Healthcare workers were attacked, and several Ebola treatment centers were burned. The rVSV ZEBOV vaccine was deployed, with approximately 300,000 people vaccinated using a ring vaccination strategy. It was the largest deployment of an Ebola vaccine during an outbreak up to that time. Therapeutic mAb114 and REGN EB3 were tested and shown to improve survival. The outbreak was declared over in June 2020 after nearly two years. The experience demonstrated that Ebola outbreaks can be controlled even in conflict zones, but at enormous cost. The integration of Ebola response with general healthcare was a key lesson.