A second Ebola patient has died in northwestern Democratic Republic of Congo, the World Health Organisation has announced, days after a fresh outbreak of the deadly disease emerged.
Genetic testing showed an 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, the World Health Organisation said on Monday on Twitter.
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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.
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Congo has seen 13 previous outbreaks of Ebola, including one in 2018-2020 in the east that killed nearly 2300 people, the second highest toll recorded in the history of the hemorrhagic fever.