New Ebola Outbreak Leaves at Least 20 Dead in Congo

The Democratic Republic of Congo has been hit with a fresh outbreak of the Ebola virus, one week after the country’s Health Ministry reported that the previous outbreak had come to an end, The New York Times reports. The new outbreak has killed at least 20 people out of the 26 suspected cases in the North Kivu Province, 1,550 miles away from the previous outbreak, in the Equator Province. Heath Minister Dr. Oly Ilunga Kalenga said there was “no indication” that the two outbreaks were related due to the distance. The director general of the World Health Organization, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said the group was already moving staff and supplies to the region. The Equator Province outbreak, which killed 33, was contained within a few months with the help of a new Ebola vaccine. Even with the new medical development, containing Ebola in North Kivu could be challenging, as the region is an “active conflict zone.” This is the tenth time the Democratic Republic of Congo has been hit with Ebola; an Ebola epidemic in West Africa killed 11,000 in 2015.