By Peter Kenny

GENEVA

The end is in sight, but flare-ups are likely in the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the World Health Organization (WHO) said Friday as the world focused on the escalating global cases of COVID-19, the coronavirus.

Dr. Ibrahima Soce Fall, WHO Assistant Director-General for Emergency Response, said at a press conference, despite the end of Ebola being in sight, “We must stay in active response mode to get us over that finish line.

“We have to be prepared for other cases emerging. This is a very real risk.”

Fall said: “The health system has to be strong to stop much more than Ebola. It has to stop malaria, measles, cholera, and now COVID-19.”

He said the work on the killer disease Ebola is continuing as the outbreak is not over.

“WHO recommends waiting two full incubation periods - that’s 42 days - after the last person tests negative a second time before declaring the end of the outbreak.”

At the peak of the Ebola outbreak, more than 120 cases were being reported each week, with cases appearing 1,200 kilometers apart.

“An Ebola vaccine has been licensed, and two treatments found to be highly effective,” said Fall, noting that millions of people had been screened for Ebola symptoms of the lethal disease at borders or other points of control.

Ebola -- a tropical fever which first appeared in 1976 in Sudan and the DRC -- can be transmitted to humans from wild animals.

It can also reportedly spread through contact with body fluids, infected persons or of those who have succumbed to the virus.

Ebola caused global alarm in 2014 when the world's worst outbreak began in West Africa, killing more than 11,300 people and infecting an estimated 28,600 as it swept through Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone.