Goma, Congo – An Ebola outbreak in Congo appears to be limited to a remote area, warranting no travel or trade restrictions for the time being, the World Health Organisation said on Saturday.
The WHO and Congolese authorities said on Friday that one case of Ebola had been confirmed in Bas-Uele province in the north-east.
A total of nine suspected cases have been reported since April 22. Three of the patients died and six are hospitalised, according to WHO.
"[I]nvestigations are ongoing to assess the full extent of the outbreak and therefore high vigilance still needs to be maintained," the UN organisation said.
A team of experts is on its way to the area, and health workers will be supplied with protective equipment, according to the statement.
Congo has suffered seven previous outbreaks of Ebola since the virus was discovered in the country in 1976. The last outbreak, in 2014, left 49 people dead.
The haemorrhagic fever has been most detrimental in West Africa, where it claimed more than 11 000 lives in 2014-15.
The WHO declared Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone – the three countries that had been most effected by the epidemic – to be free of Ebola in 2016.