Deadly Ebola virus hits 3rd province in DR Congo: WHO

ANKARA (AA) - The deadly Ebola virus has spread to the third province in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) since the 2018 outbreak in the central African country, the World Health Organization (WHO) said Friday.

“A mother and her child, have been confirmed with #Ebola in Mwenga, South Kivu [eastern DRC]. These are the first cases in this province,” the WHO said on Twitter.

“As soon as the alert was raised last night, response teams were on the ground ready to provide treatment, start tracing contacts and begin vaccination,” the organization added.

South Kivu is reportedly the third province attacked by Ebola in the DRC since the start of the 10th outbreak in late July last year in Ituri and later spread to North Kivu.

There have been more than 2,600 confirmed cases, including more than 1,800 deaths in DRC since 2018, according to a joint statement by the heads of agencies on the Ebola outbreak in DRC earlier this month. Almost one in three cases were a child, it added.

Last month, the WHO declared the Ebola outbreak in the DRC a “Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC)”.

Ebola -- a tropical fever which first appeared in 1976 in Sudan and the DRC -- can be transmitted to humans from wild animals.

It can also reportedly spread through contact with body fluids, infected people or of those who have succumbed to the virus.

Ebola caused global alarm in 2014 when the world's worst outbreak began in West Africa, killing more than 11,300 people and infecting an estimated 28,600 as it swept through Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone.