A 16-month-old and his mother recover from Ebola in rare good news from outbreak in Congo

BUNIA, Congo (AP) — A 16-month-old baby and his mother have recovered from Ebola in eastern Congo, a rare positive development as Africa’s top health body warned the outbreak of the deadly virus could become the worst on record if it continues to spread.

The two left the Rwampara Treatment Center on Tuesday, near Bunia, in Ituri province, the epicenter of the outbreak, along with five other people who also recovered from Ebola.

“The joy is immense given the state he was in at first,” Kahindo Mireille Pierrette said of her infant. “If you had seen him before, you wouldn’t believe he could have this strength now,” she added.

Pierrette said she brought her child to the treatment center at the end of May, after he started bleeding from the mouth and nose and could barely move.

Modet Camara, a doctor at the center, said the baby was treated with antibiotics after a PCR test came back positive for Ebola on his second day at the hospital.

Congo’s Ministry of Health said Tuesday that 837 cases of the virus have been confirmed so far, including 196 confirmed deaths. However, the number of cases is believed to be higher because the outbreak was confirmed on May 15, weeks after it is suspected to have begun.

Since the outbreak was declared in mid-May, 49 have recovered, the ministry said.

The outbreak is caused by the rare Bundibugyo virus, which has no approved treatment or vaccine. The more common Zaire virus, which now has a vaccine, was responsible for most of Congo’s past 16 outbreaks of the disease.

More than 90% of the cases in the current outbreak are concentrated in Congo’s eastern province of Ituri. Cases have also been recorded in the North Kivu and South Kivu provinces and have spread across the border to Uganda.

The head of Africa’s Centres for Disease Control and Prevention warned Tuesday that the outbreak could become the worst on record, noting that tens of thousands of contacts of infected patients have yet to be traced.

“If we don’t stop the outbreak very soon it will ​be worse than what ​we had in West Africa and eastern ‌DRC,” ⁠Africa CDC Director-General Jean Kaseya said during a virtual meeting of African heads of ​state.

An outbreak a decade ago across several countries in West Africa was the worst on record, with more than 28,000 cases and more than 11,000 deaths.

Nearly a million people have been displaced by years of conflict in Ituri, according to the U.N. humanitarian office, making contact tracing difficult as people flee attacks or move frequently in the vast province with dense forests, poor roads and remote villages that can take days to reach.

Tracing is also difficult among the thousands of miners who regularly move among remote sites in the mineral-rich region.

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