![Red Cross volunteers in Equateur province are briefed before heading out into their communities to share life-saving information on the prevention of both Ebola and COVID-19 [Red Cross]](/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/2-DRC_IFRC.jpg?resize=570%2C380)
What does the successful fight against Ebola in the DRC teach us about tackling COVID-19 and other future outbreaks?
Ebola
Outbreak is spreading from Mbandaka’s urban centre to surrounding remote villages in forests along the Congo River.
![Cases in Equateur mark DRC's 11th major Ebola outbreak since the virus was discovered in 1976 [File:Baz Ratner/Reuters]](/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/a54202b2bb6d48c5975871a3cd6aba5c_18.jpeg?resize=570%2C380)
WHO says nearly 50 people infected in new Ebola outbreak as DR Congo grapples with COVID-19 and...
![The outbreak has only been surpassed by the 2013-2016 Ebola epidemic in West Africa that killed 11,300 people [File: Reuters]](/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/d0ea112244cd4bcc9f22d3f73b7ee1eb_18.jpeg?resize=570%2C380)
The World Health Organization announces end of the outbreak after a two-year fight against the deadly...
![Vaccination helped control an Ebola outbreak in the east of the country [File - Al-hadji Kudra Maliro/AP]](/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/4c16a6f82e39424a8c32da9d6011d99f_18.jpeg?resize=270%2C180)
Announcement comes as the African nation battles to control a measles epidemic and the spread of coronavirus.
![The Ebola epidemic in the country's east has killed 2,280 people since August 2018 [File: Zohra Bensemra/Reuters]](/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/805c58bd28f640d39af93c38a3ccbad5_18.jpeg?resize=270%2C180)
Newest outbreak of disease, the 11th recorded in DRC’s history, comes as epidemic in country’s east is still ongoing.
![Adama Kabia forages for herbs needed to make her traditional medicine [Laurence Ivil/Al Jazeera]](/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/57101a3ee1874de68b72aa6b74f08a34_18.jpeg?resize=270%2C180)
In a country where most people visit healers, some are stepping in to bridge the trust gap between the old and the new.
![An ampule of the Ebola drug remdesivir is pictured during a news conference at the University Hospital Eppendorf in Hamburg, Germany as the spread of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continues [File: Ulrich Perrey/Reuters]](/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/a6b4b62bebdd4cb89aff614f50682582_18.jpeg?resize=270%2C180)
The same drug also failed to treat Ebola.
![WHO's Dr Marie-Rosaline Belizaire checks the health status of a woman in North Kivu, DRC [Photo courtesy of WHO/Junior D Kannah]](/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/080307af61e545dc8f88605edc26a9c2_18.jpeg?resize=270%2C180)
REPORTER'S NOTEBOOK
Ebola to coronavirus: From one emergency to another
What happens to other disease responses when the world’s public health officials are all focused on COVID-19?
![A healthcare worker, who volunteered in the Ebola response, decontaminates his colleague after he entered the house of woman suspected of dying of Ebola in DRC [File: Zohra Bensemra/Reuters]](/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/d6cdec5486594d1fa2d85809efdf0a55_18.jpeg?resize=270%2C180)
The detection of new cases of infection came days before the WHO was expected to declare the outbreak over.
![The outbreak has killed more than 2,200 people since August 2018 [Samuel Mambo/Reuters]](/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/bedbdb32d71b4750a46700ac8f62525c_18.jpeg?resize=270%2C180)
An 11-month-old girl, who was treated at the same health centre as a previous fatal case, dies from the virus, UN says.
![Health officials at work in an Ebola transit center in Beni, North Kivu province, Democratic Republic of the Congo [File: Hugh Kinsella Cunningham/EPA]](/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/35322e8cfd7a42889f71953aefc1deac_18.jpeg?resize=270%2C180)
Confirmation of new case comes just days before expected declaration of end to 20-month outbreak.
![The DRC's outbreak killed two-thirds of the 3,453 people infected [Carl Theunis/Al Jazeera]](/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/5d9fe54970e04ea096ebccd84b244bd5_18.jpeg?resize=270%2C180)
WHO to officially announce on April 12 the end of 20-month epidemic in eastern DRC that killed more than 2,200 people.
Pharmaceutical firms searching for vaccine urged to put people before profit.