Kizito Bin Hangi, a civil society leader in the Congolese region of Beni has cast doubt on government claims of a new case of Ebola.
Hangi said on Saturday that some doctors were sceptical about the possibility of a new case.
He, therefore, called for exhumation of the body of a 26-year-old man from Beni and new tests, adding that all the people who had been in touch with the patient should be traced.
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Congo’s Ebola outbreak began one-and-a-half years ago.
Until this week, there had been a run of 51 days without a new case being reported, meaning that authorities had been planning to announce the end of the outbreak on Sunday.
But the World Health Organisation (WHO) and Congo’s government pointed to initial tests in suggesting on Friday that there was a new case in the 26-year-old man from Beni.
The outbreak of the dangerous viral disease was declared in August 2018, the 10th such outbreak in the large central African state.
According to WHO, more than 2,200 people have died since then.
The outbreak has been particularly difficult to control because of the many militias fighting in the affected area, and the population distrusting medical workers sent to help.
The most serious Ebola outbreak to date was in West Africa in 2014 and 2015, when more than 11,000 people lost their lives.
(dpa/NAN)
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