KINSHASA, May 10 (Xinhua) -- The number of Ebola hemorrhagic fever cases has risen to 11 and one death has been recorded in Bikoro, Equateur Province in the northwest of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), said Congolese Minister of Health on Thursday evening.
According to Orly Ilunga, currently seven people, of which two cases previously confirmed in the laboratory, are hospitalized at the General Hospital in Bikoro. Another health center in the Iboko Health Zone reported 4 new cases and one Ebola death on Wednesday night.
"One of the peculiarities of the current epidemic is the fact that three health professionals have been infected. Health professionals being the first actors in the government's response to Ebola, this situation is of concern to us," said Ilunga at the press conference in Kinshasa.
Nevertheless, he stressed that it is important to know that there are several types of hemorrhagic fever besides the Ebola virus disease in the country.
"As the tests of the first samples have revealed, not all suspected cases are Ebola, and only the analysis of the samples taken will make it possible to accurately follow the evolution of the current epidemic," he added.
Declared since Tuesday, the DRC is now at its ninth Ebola outbreak since 1976. The last outbreak recorded by the country took place in May 2017 in the Likati Health Zone, in northern Bas-Uele province. The Likati epidemic killed four people.