2013-16 Ebola outbreak in West Africa killed more than 11,300 people and infected 28,600
By Lin Taylor
LONDON, May 12 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - One person in the Democratic Republic of Congo has died after testing positive for the Ebola virus, signaling the start of a new outbreak, the Health Ministry and the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Friday.
The case comes nearly one year after the WHO declared the epidemic over. WHO has warned that the deadly haemorrhagic virus could resurface at any time, since it can linger in the eyes, central nervous system and bodily fluids of some survivors.
Here are some key facts and figures about the epidemic, which killed more than 11,300 people and infected 28,600, almost all in Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone in a 2013-16 outbreak in West Africa:
* The epidemic began in eastern Guinea in December 2013 and swept through Liberia and Sierra Leone
* WHO declared Liberia free of Ebola in June 9, 2016. Liberia was the last country still fighting the world's worst outbreak of the disease. Sierra Leone was declared free of Ebola on March 17 and Guinea on June 1
* The Ebola virus infected more than 28,600 people and killed 11,300 of them in the three worst affected nations - more cases and more deaths than in all previous outbreaks combined
* Ebola cases were also recorded in seven other countries, including the United States, Spain and Nigeria, but on a much smaller scale, totalling 36 cases and 15 deaths
* The WHO declared the West Africa Ebola outbreak a Public Health Emergency of International Concern on Aug. 8, 2014
* After a slow initial response, the WHO and nations ranging from Cuba to France poured in trained staff, field hospitals, laboratories and equipment to tackle the epidemic
* On average, around 50 percent of humans infected in an outbreak die, though in past outbreaks the fatality rate has varied from 25 to 90 percent
* The virus is transmitted to people from wild animals such as fruit bats and monkeys and spreads among humans through contact with bodily fluids of an infected person
* The virus can lie dormant and hide in parts of the body such as the eyes and testicles long after leaving the bloodstream - raising questions about whether it can ever be beaten, with West Africa's 17,000 survivors acting as a potential human reservoir.
* The Ebola virus first appeared in 1976 in two simultaneous outbreaks, one in Nzara, South Sudan, the other in Yambuku, Democratic Republic of Congo, in a village near the River Ebola
* Scientists have been racing to develop vaccines for Ebola and experts are now confident the world will not be defenceless when the next outbreak hits. Sources: World Health Organization, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Reuters News, Thomson Reuters Foundation
(Reporting by Lin Taylor @linnytayls, Editing by Ros Russell; Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters that covers humanitarian issues, conflicts, global land and property rights, modern slavery and human trafficking, women's rights, climate change and resilience. Visit http://news.trust.org to see more stories)
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