The Democratic Republic of the Congo declared a new Ebola outbreak Tuesday, after two samples taken from patients tested positive for the deadly disease that killed more than 11,000 people in West Africa and sparked a worldwide panic earlier this decade. The new outbreak was declared after laboratory results confirmed two cases of Ebola, according to a press release from the World Health Organization (WHO). Ebola virus disease (EVD), formerly known as Ebola hemorrhagic fever, is caused by a virus spread through blood and bodily fluids from infected humans or animals, primarily bats and monkeys. The virus is transmitted to people from wild animals and spreads in the human population through human-to-human transmission. However, Ebola is only one type of viral hemorrhagic fever, so it is still not clear whether the other cases and deaths are also from Ebola or another illness. “Our top priority is to get to Bikoro to work alongside the Government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and partners to reduce the loss of life and suffering related to this new Ebola virus disease outbreak [...] Working with partners and responding early and in a coordinated way will be vital to containing this deadly disease,” said Dr Peter Salama, WHO Deputy Director-General for Emergency Preparedness and Response, in the news release. Speaking on behalf of the Democratic Republic of Congo Minister of Health, Lambert Matuku, the Minister of State and Labor, said, it is “a worrisome sanitary situation.”

The WHO said it is again working closely with the government to rapidly scale up its operations and mobilize health partners, including Medicin sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders), using its model of a successful response to the Ebola outbreak of 2017. WHO said it had released $1m (£740,000) from its Contingency Fund for Emergencies to support response activities for the next three months with the goal of stopping the spread of Ebola to surrounding provinces and countries.
A new outbreak of the Ebola virus disease kills at least 17 people in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.