Ebola outbreak in DR Congo has ended, minister reports

The latest outbreak of Ebola in the Democratic Republic of Congo has ended after claiming 34 lives, Health Minister Felix Kabange Numbi said Monday.

According to revised figures, 62 people are believed to have been infected during the latest epidemic, which was declared in mid-August in the northeastern Orientale Province and which officially ended on Friday, he said.

The health ministry, the World Health Organisation (WHO), the Centers for Disease Control based in Atlanta, Georgia, and Doctors Without Borders (MSF) have been working in close cooperation to combat the outbreak.

To date, no treatment or vaccine is available for Ebola, which kills between 25 and 90 percent of those who fall sick, depending on the strain of the virus, according to the WHO.

The disease is transmitted by direct contact with blood, faeces or sweat, or by sexual contact or unprotected handling of contaminated corpses.

DR Congo has now recorded eight outbreaks of Ebola, one of the world's most virulent diseases, since the virus was first reported near a river that gave the disease its name in 1976.