New Ebola case confirmed in northwestern Congo, lab report says

A new case of Ebola has been confirmed in the northwestern Democratic Republic of Congo, the National Institute of Biomedical Research said on Saturday, four months after the end of the country’s last outbreak.

The case was detected in the city of Mbandaka, capital of Congo’s Equateur province, said the institute. A health ministry spokesperson also confirmed the discovery.

Congo has seen 13 previous outbreaks of Ebola, including one in 2018-2020 in the east that killed nearly 2,300 people, the second-highest toll recorded in the history of hemorrhagic fever.

The last outbreak, also in the east, infected 11 people between October and December and killed six of them.