A fourth person has died in an Ebola virus outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo, a spokesman from the World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Monday.
Since the WHO declared the outbreak on May 12 in north-eastern Bas-Uele province, 37 suspected cases are being monitored, WHO’s Eugene Kabambi said.
Of these suspected cases, two were confirmed in the laboratory and three were regarded as probable Ebola cases, Kabambi said.
Community health agents are monitoring 400 people who may have come into contact with those killed by the virus.
“People who were in contact with the first case reported on April 22 came out unscathed after the 21 days of observation,’’ Kabambi said.
The Democratic Republic of the Congo has suffered seven previous outbreaks of Ebola since the virus was discovered in the country in 1976.
The last outbreak, in 2014, left 49 people dead.
West Africa was worst affected during 2014, with the haemorrhagic fever claiming more than 11,000 lives, most of those in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. (dpa/NAN)
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