New Ebola case confirmed in eastern DR Congo

Three-year-old boy tests positive near Beni just five months after the latest epidemic in the country was declared over.

One Ebola case has been confirmed in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) just five months after the latest epidemic of the disease in the country was declared over.

A three-year-old boy tested positive near the eastern city of Beni, one of the epicentres of the 2018-2020 outbreak, and died from the disease on Wednesday, Health Minister Jean Jacques Mbungani said in a statement on Friday.

It was not immediately known if the case was related to the 2018-2020 outbreak that killed more than 2,200 people in eastern DRC, the second deadliest on record, or the flare-up that killed six this year.