A new case of the life-threatening Ebola disease has been registered in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The Ministry of Health reported an infection in the eastern province of North Kivu, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced on Saturday night. It is said to have been a young child who died on Wednesday after developing symptoms typical of Ebola.
It was only in May that an outbreak in North Kivu was officially declared over. WHO is helping authorities investigate the new Ebola case, said WHO Regional Director for Africa, Matshidiso Moeti.
According to WHO information, the case occurred in the Butsili region near the city of Beni, where Ebola outbreaks occurred repeatedly from 2018 to 2020. During the two-year outbreak, a total of nearly 3,500 cases were detected, with 2,299 people dying. Beni is a trade hub in the region with close ties to the neighboring countries of Rwanda and Uganda.
An Ebola infection usually leads to a high fever and internal bleeding and is life-threatening. 2014 and 2015 saw the largest outbreak of the disease in West Africa with more than 11,000 deaths.