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This means the disease has spread 93 miles from the original six cases. On Monday, Congolese authorities confirmed four people in the city of Mbandaka had died from the disease. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus explained to reporters: “The latest person confirmed with Ebola attended the burial of one of the first cases, but was detected in the town of Bikoro, 150 kilometres away from Mbandaka.
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“This means that two health zones are now affected.”
Kinshasa hoped to declare itself ebola-free this month.
An outbreak on the other side of the country has killed 2,200 people since 2018.
On Wednesday, around 50 WHO workers arrived with 3,600 doses of vaccine and 2,000 cartridges for lab testing.
A Congolese healthcare worker during a 2017 outbreak (Image: GETTY)
The World Health Organisation have sent a team with vaccines and tests (Image: GETTY)
At the same time, the nation is fighting a coronavirus outbreak which has killed 75 people and infected over 3,000.
Ebola is a viral haemorrhagic fever.
Common symptoms usually begin to appear within a couple of days to a few weeks of contracting the virus.
The earliest symptoms are fever, sore throat, muscular pain, and headaches.
READ MORE: Ebola crisis: Congo struck by new Ebola outbreak
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These are usually followed by vomiting, diarrhoea and rash as well as decreased kidney and liver functions.
Internal and external bleeding has also been recorded,
The disease was first identified in 1976 with two simultaneous outbreaks.
One of these was in Nzara, in what is now South Sudan.
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The Waterloo Ebola Graveyard in Sierra Leone (Image: GETTY)
The other was in Yambuku, in what was then Zaire and what is now Congo DR.
The village is near the Ebola River from which the disease takes its name.
The disease has a high mortality rate in both humans and primates.
The WHO’s efforts to fight ebola come as the organisation finds itself at the centre of a diplomatic row.
Having accused the organisation of being a Chinese puppet, Donald Trump has cut US ties from the organisation.
The WHO has defended its response to the coronavirus outbreak.
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Dr Tedros told reporters: “The world has long benefited from the strong collaborative engagement with the government and the people of the United States.
“The US government and its people’s contribution and generosity over many decades have been immense.
“It is WHO’s wish for this collaboration to continue.”
