Ebola: 2nd death confirmed in DR Congo

By Felix Tih

ANKARA (AA) - A second death linked to the Ebola virus has been confirmed in the northeastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), local media reported.

Sunday's victim was an 11-year-old girl who had been admitted to the Beni General Reference Hospital several days ago.

For the last few weeks, no new case had been reported until last Friday when a 26-year-old man died of Ebola in the city of Beni, Congolese authorities and the World Health Organization (WHO) said.

So the DRC government will not be able to declare an end to the Ebola outbreak on Monday, as hoped, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the WHO chief, said last week.

The recent Ebola outbreak in DR Congo since it was declared in August 2018 left more than 2,200 people dead, with 3,310 cases reported.

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.