Congo Ebola outbreak deaths now 31

Deaths arising from the outbreak of Ebola virus disease in Djera region of northern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) are now 31, according to the government on Tuesday.

The DRC government had previously said there were 13 dead.

This is as the World Health Organisation (WHO) confirmed there was no link with the epidemic in West Africa.

The separate outbreak in West Africa has killed more than 1,550 people since it was first reported in the forests of southeastern Guinea in March.

The WHO said on Tuesday that the outbreak in Congo was a “distinct and independent event, with no relationship to the outbreak in West Africa.”

It added that there were a total of 53 cases and said health care workers were tracing 160 contacts.

The Zaire strain of the deadly virus is indigenous to Congo and there have seen seven outbreaks in the country since it was first discovered there in the remote Equateur province in 1976.

The first victim of the current Congo outbreak was a pregnant woman who butchered a jungle animal in the village of Ikanamongo and died on August 11.

Reuters