A third Ebola case this week has been confirmed in Democratic Republic of Congo.

The case was found in Butembo, a city of over one million people and the epicentre of a major outbreak of the disease that was declared over last June after nearly two years.

Provincial health minister Eugene Nzanzu Salita said: “We are in a meeting to gather all the information on the investigations done around this case.”

Congo’s health ministry announced a resurgence of the disease on 7 February after a woman contracted Ebola and died.

She was married to a survivor of the previous outbreak.

On Friday, 1,200 doses of Ebola vaccine and cold chain equipment arrived in Butembo, the health ministry and the World Health Organisation (WHO) said in a statement.

Health workers are training vaccinators and tracing more than 100 contacts in the districts of Biena and Katwa, the statement said.

A new outbreak would be Congo’s 12th since the virus was first discovered near the Ebola river in 1976.

The virus causes severe vomiting and diarrhoea and is spread through contact with body fluids.

TodayNG