A second Ebola patient has died in northwest Democratic Republic of Congo, the World Health Organization announced on Tuesday, days after a fresh outbreak of the deadly disease emerged.
According to genetic testing by the WHO, the infection confirmed last week was a new “spillover event”, a transmission from an infected animal, and not linked to the last outbreak, which was declared over in December.
Speaking to Reuters, a WHO spokesperson further revealed that the second fatality was a female relative of the first case, a WHO spokesperson told Reuters.
The first patient began showing symptoms on April 5, but did not seek treatment for more than a week. He was admitted to an Ebola treatment centre in Mbandaka, the capital of Congo’s Equateur province, on April 21 and died later that day
