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DR Congo Ebola outbreak spreads to Mbandaka city

Thursday May 17 2018
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Health workers wear protective equipment as they prepare to attend to suspected Ebola patients at Bikoro Hospital - the epicentre of the latest Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo, on May 12, 2018. AFP PHOTO | UNICEF

By BBC

The Ebola outbreak in DR Congo has spread from the countryside into a city, prompting fears that the disease will be increasingly difficult to control.

Health Minister Oly Ilunga Kalenga confirmed a case in Mbandaka, a city of a million people about 130km from the area where the first cases were confirmed earlier this month.

The city is a major transportation hub with routes to the capital Kinshasa.

Forty-two people have now been infected and 23 people are known to have died.

Ebola is a serious infectious illness that causes internal bleeding and often proves fatal. It can spread rapidly through contact with small amounts of bodily fluid and its early flu-like symptoms are not always obvious.

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