WHO Confirms Second Ebola Case In DR Congo

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has confirmed the second Ebola Case In Congo DR

WHO confirmed a second case of Ebola in the Democratic Republic of Congo Sunday.

This is coming on the heels of an outbreak of 17 other suspected cases reported this week.

According to Reuters News Agency, health officials are trying to trace 125 people thought to be linked to the cases.

Spokesman for the WHO in Congo, Eugene Kabambi, told reporters Reuters that The cases were identified in the remote northeastern province of Bas-Uele province in northeastern Congo near the border with Central African Republic (CAR).

He further disclosed that so far, three people have died among the 19 suspected and confirmed cases.

As of yet, it is not immediately clear how the first victim, a deceased male, caught the virus.

Although in the previous outbreaks have been linked to contact with infected bush meat such as apes.

The Ebola outbreak comes barely a year after the end of an epidemic in West Africa which killed more than 11,300 people mostly in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia.

However, Congo, whose dense forests contain the River Ebola near where the disease was first detected in 1976, has experienced many outbreaks and has mostly succeeded in containing them without large-scale loss of life

On Friday, the GAVI global vaccine alliance disclosed that some 300,000 emergency doses of an Ebola vaccine developed by Merck (MRK.N) could be available in case of a large-scale outbreak.

They added that the GAVI stood ready to support the Congo government on the matter.