Ebola outbreak may be nearly contained: Canadian expert

The Ebola outbreak that drew a large international assistance effort to the Democratic Republic of Congo may be coming under control, one of the Canadian experts involved in the response said Sunday.

In an interview from Mweka, Congo,Dr. Heinz Feldmann, head of the special pathogens division of the National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg, said a decision is expected in the next day or two about whether another wave of experts will be needed when the current team rotates out of the country on Oct. 11.

"From the sample numbers and the positive cases it seems to be that we're looking towards the end of this," said Feldmann, a veteran of several Ebola and Marburg fever containment efforts.

"That has to be taken with caution, because one case could start a new transmission chain and it could all start over again."

The outbreak is believed to date back to late April and may have involved several hundred people.

Feldmann said a second team has been chosen and is getting ready to travel to Mweka in case the World Health Organization's Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network (GOARN) determines longer term international help is needed.

"We're just waiting for WHO and GOARN to either call it off or give the go-ahead," Feldmann said.

He and colleagues Allen Grolla and Dr. Gary Kobinger travelled to the town in the province of Kasai Occidental to set up a mobile laboratory that can operate in locations where few resources are available. The mobile lab was designed and built at the Winnipeg laboratory, part of the Public Health Agency of Canada.

By Sunday, the team had diagnosed four positive cases in five days of operation at Mweka. As of late last week, the ministry of health of the Democratic Republic of Congo announced 17 recent cases in Mweka and Luebo, where experts from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control have set up a laboratory.

Current estimates suggest roughly 170 people have died and more than 200 others were ill with symptoms that may have been Ebola or diseases that can be confused with a non-fatal case of Ebola.

In the early stages of the disease, Ebola has symptoms shared by a number of other diseases common in this part of Africa. Some cases of shigellosis and typhoid fever have been diagnosed among the suspected Ebola sufferers.