The death toll from an Ebola outbreak in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo has risen to more than 200.

The health ministry said it had recorded 201 deaths from the virus and that 291 cases have been confirmed since the outbreak began in August.

About half of the cases were in Beni, a city of 800,000 people, in the North Kivu region.

The United Nation’s Department of Peacekeeping on Friday called on armed groups active in the region not to hinder efforts to fight the disease.

Teams responsible for responding to the outbreak “have faced threats, physical assaults, repeated destruction of their equipment and kidnapping,” Health Minister Oly Ilunga said.

“Two of our colleagues in the Rapid Response Medical Unit have even lost their lives in an attack,” he said.

The outbreak is the 10th in DR Congo since Ebola was first detected there in 1976.

Ebola is a serious infectious disease that can spread rapidly through small amounts of bodily fluid. It causes internal bleeding and can be fatal.

Since a vaccination programme began on August 8, more than 25,000 people have been innoculated, the health ministry said earlier this month. </s> Image copyright Reuters Image caption Medical teams are vaccinating people to help stop the spread of the virus

The latest outbreak of the Ebola virus in the Democratic Republic of Congo is the worst in the country's history, the health ministry says.

Almost 200 people have died since August, officials say, with more than 300 confirmed or probable cases.

A vaccination programme has so far inoculated about 25,000 people.

DR Congo has suffered long years of instability and efforts to relieve the disease have been hampered by attacks on medical workers.

"At this point, 319 cases and 198 deaths have been registered," health minister Oly Ilunga said.

"In view of these figures, my thoughts and my prayers go to the hundreds of families grieving, to the hundreds of orphans and the families which have been wiped out."

About half the victims were from Beni, a city of 800,000 in the North Kivu region, the national health authority said.

The current outbreak is the tenth DR Congo has suffered and the worst since the country's first epidemic in 1976, so early in the disease's history it had yet to be named.

The outbreak in 1976 of what was then an unknown disease in a remote part of DR Congo sparked terror, but was brought under control by experts quickly identifying the virus' nature and using quarantines.

Ebola is spread via small amounts of bodily fluid and infection often proves fatal.

Early symptoms are flu-like, followed by vomiting, diarrhoea, a rash and internal and external bleeding. </s> One of the deadliest Ebola outbreaks in history continues to worsen in the Democratic Republic of Congo with as many as 319 people now dead.

The Ministry of Health said Tuesday that 542 Ebola cases had been recorded in the province of North Kivu — 494 of which have been confirmed. Of the 319 believed to have died from the virus so far, 271 have been confirmed.

On average, Ebola — which causes fever, severe headache and in some cases hemorrhaging — kills about half of those infected, but fatality rates in individual outbreaks have varied.

The World Health Organization (WHO) said efforts to contain the outbreak have been hampered due to “non-engagement” from local communities and armed conflict in the region.

North Kivu, which includes the cities of Beni, Kalunguta and Mabalako, remains the epicenter of the outbreak, though cases have been reported in neighboring Ituri province, according to the WHO. The two provinces are among the most populated in the nation and border Uganda, Rwanda and South Sudan.

The public health agency estimates that more than a million refugees and internally displaced people are traveling through and out of North Kivu and Ituri, which could hasten the spread of the virus further.

The Congo outbreak is the second-deadliest ever, behind only in West Africa in 2014, when the virus killed more than 11,000 people. It is Congo’s 10th epidemic since 1976, and second this year. </s> KINSHASA, Congo (AP) — Congo's health ministry says the latest Ebola outbreak has now become the worst in the country's recorded history with 319 confirmed and probable cases.

The ministry said late Friday that the deadly virus has killed about 198 people since the outbreak was declared Aug. 1 in the volatile east. Those dead include 163 confirmed Ebola cases, with 35 probable deaths.

This is Congo's 10th outbreak since 1976, when the hemorrhagic fever was first identified in Yambuku.

Health Minister Dr. Oly Ilunga Kalenga said the figures now exceed that outbreak. He said no other epidemic has been as complex.

Armed groups vying for control of Congo's mineral-rich east have staged regular attacks in Congo's Ituri and North Kivu provinces, complicating the response by health officials who are also meeting community resistance. </s> Health ministry confirms deaths from virus in the Democratic Republic of the Congo

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

At least 17 people have died in the north-west of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where health officials have confirmed an outbreak of Ebola, the health ministry has said.

It is the ninth time Ebola has been recorded in the DRC, whose eastern Ebola river gave the deadly virus its name when it was discovered there in the 1970s, and the outbreak comes less than a year after one that killed eight people.

The health ministry said: “Our country is facing another epidemic of the Ebola virus, which constitutes an international public health emergency.

“We still dispose of the well-trained human resources that were able to rapidly control previous epidemics.”

Ebola outbreaks from 1976 to now – interactive map Read more

Ebola is believed to be spread over long distances by bats, which can host the virus without dying, as they infect other animals with which they share trees, such as monkeys. Ebola often spreads to humans via infected bushmeat.

Before the outbreak was confirmed, local health officials reported 21 patients showing signs of hemorrhagic fever around the village of Ikoko Impenge, near the town of Bikoro. Seventeen of those later died.

Medical teams supported by the World Health Organization and Médecins Sans Frontières were dispatched to the zone on Saturday and took five samples from suspected active cases.

Two of the samples tested positive for the Zaire strain of the Ebola virus, the ministry said.

After DRC’s previous Ebola flare-up, authorities approved the use of a new experimental vaccine, but in the end did not deploy it owing to logistical challenges and the relatively minor nature of the outbreak.

The worst Ebola epidemic ended in West Africa two years ago after killing more than 11,300 people and infecting about 28,600 across Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia.

Despite regular outbreaks every few years, death tolls in the DRC have been significantly lower. </s> Congo's latest Ebola outbreak is the worst in the country's recorded history with 319 confirmed and probable cases, the health ministry said. The deadly virus has killed about 198 people since the outbreak was declared Aug. 1 in the volatile east, the ministry said. Those dead include 163 confirmed Ebola cases, with 35 probable deaths. Nearly 100 people have survived Ebola. This is Congo's 10th outbreak since 1976, when the hemorrhagic fever was first identified in Yambuku, in the Equateur province, the ministry said.

Health Minister Dr. Oly Ilunga Kalenga said late Friday that the figures now exceed that outbreak. "No other epidemic in the world has been as complex as the one we are currently experiencing," Kalenga said. "Since their arrival in the region, the response teams have faced threats, physical assaults, repeated destruction of their equipment, and kidnapping. Two of our colleagues in the Rapid Response Medical Unit even lost their lives in an attack."

This is the first time an Ebola outbreak has occurred in Congo's far northeast. The health ministry has said teams responding to the Ebola outbreak are attacked three or four times a week on average, a level of violence unseen in the country's nine previous outbreaks of the virus. Ebola is spread via the body fluids of infected people, including the dead. </s> The Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo made the long-feared jump across borders with three cases confirmed Wednesday in Uganda, including the death of a 5-year-old boy who had the virus.

The World Health Organization and Ugandan health authorities said Tuesday the Congolese boy had traveled from Congo on Sunday, entered Uganda with his family and sought medical care.

The other two confirmed cases are the boy’s 3-year-old brother and his grandmother, 50. They are being treated under isolation at the Bwera Hospital Ebola Treatment Unit, in the west of Uganda, the country’s Ministry of Health said.

In a tweet Wednesday, WHO said the boy died Tuesday night.

“The young patient – 5- year-old index case of #Ebola died last night. Two more samples were sent to UVRI and have tested positive. We, therefore, have three confirmed cases of #Ebola in #Uganda,” the tweet said, referring to the Uganda Virus Research Institute.

The ministry added that eight people who had been in contact with the family were being traced.

The Congo outbreak is both the second largest and second deadliest Ebola outbreak in history.

More than 1,300 people have died since it began in August. The epicenter is in North Kivu and Ituri provinces, among the most populous in the Congo and bordering Uganda, Rwanda and South Sudan.

Concern had been mounting that the infectious disease would cross the border, underscored by an increase in the number of cases in recent weeks.

Pressure on WHO to declare international emergency

Dr. Jeremy Farrar, director of Wellcome Trust, a UK medical research charity, said that while Uganda was well-prepared to cope with the disease, global health authorities should be ready for more cases in the Democratic Republic of Congo and other neighboring countries.

“This epidemic is in a truly frightening phase and shows no sign of stopping anytime soon,” he said in a statement.

“There are now more deaths than any other Ebola outbreak in history, bar the West Africa Epidemic of 2013-16, and there can be no doubt that the situation could escalate towards those terrible levels.”

Uganda’s Health Ministry said the boy and his grandmother had been vomiting blood, a severe symptom of Ebola, when they had presented themselves to doctors.

“Ebola is a horrific illness that ravages the human body,” said Brechtje van Lith, Save the Children’s country director in Uganda. “This first death, of a child, is a sickening reminder of the dangers of this disease.”

WHO is likely to come under pressure to declare the outbreak an international health emergency. In April, the health body said it did not constitute a “public health emergency of international concern.”

WHO defines a public health emergency of international concern as “an extraordinary event” that constitutes a “public health risk to other States through the international spread of disease” and “to potentially require a coordinated international response.”

Unlike the outbreak in West Africa that killed more than 11,000 people, there are now vaccines and experimental treatments to help stop the spread of the disease.

However, the Congo outbreak has proven difficult to bring under control because of community mistrust and violent attacks on health care workers.

“A step up in the national response with full international support is critical if we’re to contain the epidemic and ensure the very best protection for the communities at risk and for the health workers working to protect lives,” Farrar said. “This needs to be championed at the highest political levels, including at the UN and the upcoming G20.”

Uganda’s health ministry said it was vaccinating front-line health workers and people who had been in contact with the family. It said people should report any symptoms including unexplained bleeding from any body opening, vomiting of blood, bloody diarrhea and muscle pain.

It appealed to the public to “suspend social norms like shaking hands and hugging” and called on border districts to suspend mass gatherings such as weddings and markets and in places of worship. </s> The World Health Organization said Wednesday the deadly Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo is now an international health emergency after the virus spread this week to a city of 2 million people.

The WHO declared the outbreak a "public health emergency of international concern," a rare designation only used for the gravest epidemics.

"It is time for the world to take notice," WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a statement, as he accepted the advice of his advisory board to invoke emergency provisions only used by the U.N. health agency four times previously.

A WHO expert committee declined on three previous occasions to advise the United Nations health agency to make the declaration, but other experts say the outbreak has long met the conditions.

More than 1,600 people have died since August in the second deadliest Ebola outbreak in history, which is unfolding in a region described as a war zone.

This week the first Ebola case was confirmed in Goma, a major regional crossroads on the Rwandan border with an international airport. Experts have feared this for months.

A declaration of a global health emergency often brings greater international attention and aid. </s> The Democratic Republic of Congo's Ebola outbreak has spread to a provincial capital, prompting the World Health Organization (WHO) to call an emergency meeting.

The outbreak was announced last week in the remote rural area of Bikoro. So far 45 cases have been reported and 25 people are known to have died.

But cases have also been confirmed in Mbandaka, about 150km away, which is home to almost 1.2 million people.

The city lies on the Congo River, a busy transport corridor to the capital Kinshasa, where more than 10 million people live.
The death toll of the ebola virus outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo that started in August, rises to 200 people. This is the deadliest ebola outbreak in the history of the country.