A total of 42 people has been killed by confirmed and suspected Ebola infection in the Equateur province in northern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Felix Kabange, minister of public health said on Wednesday.
Some 70 cases of the deadly virus have been confirmed in a remote region near the town of Boende some 800 kilometres (500 miles) northwest of Kinshasa, with a mortality rate of around 60 percent.
A breakdown by the minister shows that 30 cases had be confirmed, out of which 16 died, 2 in isolation and 12 healed. Other deaths are among the 14 suspected and 26 probable cases.
He said 243 people are being monitored among the 245 who had been in contact with Ebola patients.
“The dead include eight health workers and three isolation cases, all in Djera,” he added.
By Monday, 139 specimens had been tested, and the last positive case was confirmed on Sept. 24, according to the minister.
According to the World Health Organization and the authorities in Kinshasa, the outbreak is not related to the worst ever epidemic of the virus which has killed more than 3,000 people in west Africa this year.
A month ago, the government said 32 people had been killed in the outbreak, the seventh Ebola outbreak since the disease was first identified in the former Zaire in 1976.
The last case in DR Congo, which has an incubation period of three weeks, was confirmed on 24 September, said the minister. Last month, Congolese authorities had declared the outbreak was “on its way to being controlled”.