West Congo ebola cases up to 60 -WHO

Ebola cases in western Democratic Republic of Congo have risen to 60, with funerals being a particular concern for disease spread, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Monday.

WHO emergencies expert Mike Ryan said another three cases were detected at the weekend, making a total of 56 confirmed and four probable infections in an outbreak announced last month in Congo’s Equateur province.

“The disease is active, not controlled,” Ryan told a virtual briefing from the U.N. agency’s headquarters in Geneva, noting burial practices as a worry.

Last week, the UN health agency while expressing concern, said it deployed over 70 experts in DR Congo to support it in the fight against the virus.

The WHO and the DR Congo government had declared the country free from the 10th outbreak on May 14.

The epidemic in August 2018 was the second largest outbreak in the world and challenging as it took place in an active conflict zone in North Kivu.

There were 3,470 cases, 2,287 deaths and 1,171 survivors, according to the WHO.

Ebola caused global alarm in 2014 when the world’s worst outbreak began in West Africa, killing more than 11,300 people, and infecting an estimated 28,600 as it swept through Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone