Ebola
Delayed Ebola vaccination drive to begin in Guinea
The outbreak, declared last weekend, is the first in the region since a 2013-16 epidemic left more than 11,300 people dead, mainly in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra...
One person died Friday and another on Saturday, while the two others died in early February.
The WHO's office in the Democratic Republic of Congo said four people in Biene had been vaccinated and 334 other contacts would also receive the jab.
The cases marked the first known resurgence of Ebola in West Africa since a 2013-2016 epidemic that began in Guinea and killed more than 11,300 people across the region.
Guinea's Health Minister Remy Lamah told AFP on Saturday that four people had died of Ebola, the first deaths since a 2013-2016 epidemic -- which began in Guinea.
Since the West African Ebola crisis of 2013-16 - which left 11,300 dead across the region - the WHO has eyed each new outbreak with great concern, treating the most recent Congolese epidemic as an international health emergency.
The World Health Organization said the latest outbreak had killed 55 people among 119 confirmed and 11 probable cases since it began in June.
Fifty-three people have lost their lives since June in what has been the 11th outbreak of Ebola in the vast central African country since 1976.
Fifty-three people have lost their lives since June in what has been the 11th outbreak of Ebola in the vast central African country since 1976.
The year-long probe by the Thomson Reuters Foundation and The New Humanitarian news organisation took testimony from more than 50 women.
WHO emergencies expert Mike Ryan said another three cases were detected at the weekend, making a total of 56 confirmed and four probable infections in an outbreak announced last month in Congo’s Equateur province.
Since authorities announced the outbreak on June 1, 48 cases have been confirmed in Congo’s Equateur province, with a further three probable cases and a total of 20 deaths, WHO’s top emergencies expert Mike Ryan said.
The outbreak declared in north Kivu in August 2018, was the second-largest in the world and was compounded by the active conflict zone in that region.
More than 2,000 people were killed by the outbreak out of 3,470 cases.
The Ebola cases have been confirmed in seven health zones across Equateur, including two cases in Bolomba, 300 km northeast of Mbandaka, the World Health Organization said in an update.
There have now been nine confirmed cases and three probable cases of the disease in and around Mbandaka, the WHO said. Six of those people have died, it added.
Six people have died of the much-feared haemorrhagic virus since 1 June, when the first cases came to light in Mbandaka, capital of Equateur province.
Indifference or disbelief towards COVID-19 runs deep in the Democratic Republic of Congo's capital -- a response that strikes fear into watchdogs battling the disease.
The appearance of the deadly disease on the other side of the vast central African country comes as an added blow as it attempts to also battle the coronavirus pandemic.