Kinshasa, Sep 18 : At least 31 people have died in the latest Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), a World Health Organisation (WHO) official said Thursday.

Patrick Otim, an official from the WHO Regional Office for Africa, told an online press briefing that 48 cases have been reported in the central province of Kasai, including 38 confirmed. 31 patients have died, while 15 remain under treatment at an Ebola centre in the Bulape health zone, the epicentre of the outbreak, and two have been discharged, Xinhua News Agency reported.

According to Otim, a vaccination campaign has begun, with about 760 doses already delivered to Bulape. More than 500 health workers and close contacts of confirmed cases have been inoculated, and 45,000 additional doses are expected in the national capital, Kinshasa, in the coming days. He noted, however, that Bulape's remote location poses logistical challenges, particularly for cold-chain transport.

The official said transmission has slowed following interventions but urged continued vigilance, stressing the need for faster testing, tracing, and vaccination.

"We are seeing that there is a slowing down of transmission ... It is very good progress that we can build upon. We are quite certain that if we continue on this trajectory, along with the rollout of vaccination, we should be able to control this outbreak as soon as possible," said Otim.

The DRC government declared the outbreak on September 4 in Kasai, marking the country's 16th outbreak since Ebola was first identified in 1976. The previous outbreak ended in September 2022 after a single case was confirmed in North Kivu Province. Genetic testing later linked it to the 2018-2020 epidemic in North Kivu and Ituri that killed nearly 2,300 people.

Ebola is a highly contagious hemorrhagic fever that causes a range of symptoms such as fever, vomiting, diarrhea, generalized pain, and malaise, and in many cases, internal and external bleeding, according to the WHO.

/IANS