The Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo has been declared officially over, thanks to a major response from the government and support by an international community determined to prevent the sort of spread that killed more than 11,000 people in west Africa three years ago.

There were 53 cases and 29 deaths in the DRC outbreak that began in early May, but a massive effort began to contain it as soon as the government declared it was Ebola. Although DRC had successfully contained and closed down eight Ebola outbreaks in the past four decades, the most recent appeared on the Congo River, the main arterial transport route through the country.

The first cases were in the village of Ikoko-Impenge in Équateur province, which is not accessible by road and is 19 miles (30km) from Bikoro, which has a hospital. There was a risk that people infected by the virus would travel to the town or even further by river and that the outbreak could spread widely and even into neighbouring countries.

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the WHO director general, praised the government’s response and the international support. “The outbreak was contained due to the tireless efforts of local teams, the support of partners, the generosity of donors, and the effective leadership of the ministry of health. That kind of leadership, allied with strong collaboration between partners, saves lives,” he said.

WHO released an immediate $2m (£1.5m) and eventually a total of $4m from its emergencies contingency fund and appealed for more. A total of $63m was raised and made available to end the epidemic.

The west Africa outbreak took hold in part because Ebola had never been seen in that region before. It was not quickly identified, however. Governments did not immediately declare they had an outbreak and WHO was heavily criticised for its slow response.