A fresh Ebola outbreak has been reported by health official in the DR Congo few weeks before they hoped to declared the end of the ebola pandemic.
This comes as a blow as the country battles with the world’s dreaded virus, the coronavirus pandemic. According to the health minister, Eteni Longondo, four people have died from Ebola in the district of Mbandaka.
Mbandaka is a transport hub on the Congo River with a population of more than a million.
Equateur Province was previously hit by an Ebola outbreak between May and July 2018, in which 33 people died and 21 recovered from the disease.
The World Health Organization (WHO) declared the outbreak a public health emergency of international concern in July 2019, after the highly contagious virus threatened to spread to the large city of Goma and neighboring countries.
In April, the eastern outbreak was just three days away from being declared over when a new case was reported, pushing the date back.
The DRC is also fighting an outbreak of the new coronavirus, recording so far 3,195 infections – 2,896 in the capital, Kinshasa – and 72 deaths, according to the latest official figures.