By Melanie Aanyu,

The World Health Organization (WHO) is reporting a new Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Although only one case has been confirmed so far, there are concerns the outbreak could spread, as the patient was not diagnosed and isolated quickly.

An Ebola outbreak in West Africa between 2013 and 2015 caused at least 11,000 deaths as the haemorrhagic disease has a mortality rate of around 50%.

This latest Ebola outbreak started in Mbandaka, a densely populated city with road and air links to the capital, Kinshasa.

The patient was ill for more than a week before he sought treatment, and died the day he was admitted to hospital.

The WHO’s Africa emergencies manager, Fiona Braka, said the delay in medical care is a concern.

She added that it’s very important that all the contacts are quickly identified and the necessary isolation and monitoring is done to ensure that all those that are potentially infected are identified to curb the spread of the disease.

This is DR Congo’s sixth Ebola outbreak since 2018 and a massive contact tracing operation is under way and a vaccination campaign.