Eleven new haemorrhagic cases, one of them fatal, have been reported since Tuesday.

The World Health Organisation says the risk from the latest outbreak of Ebola in the DRC is high locally, moderate regionally and low globally.

Twenty seven haemorrhagic cases were reported in Bikord in Equateur province in April and May. 

Seventeen of these were fatal.

Congolese Health Minister Oly Ilungu says two cases of Ebola have been confirmed.

His country needs international help dealing with the outbreak.

Ebola is spread by five viruses and generally half the people contracting it, by coming into contact with bodily fluids of an infected person, die of it.

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The remoteness of the area, which has made access difficult for them, militates against the haemorrhagic disease spreading.

This is the ninth Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo since the virus was identified there 42 years ago.

Medical teams say they’ve developed a successful model for preventing the spread of the disease carried by contact with human body fluids.

They’ve also learned valuable lessons from the world’s worst Ebola outbreak that killed 11 000 people in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea four years ago 

Teams from the World Health Organisation and Medecins Sans Frontiers are on the ground in Bikoro, in northwest DRC, applying their experience.  

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With 21 suspicious illnesses and 17 deaths, the World Health Organization has released $1M in emergency funds.

Two of the five samples taken from the iIkoko Iponge health facility near Bikoro in Equateur Province these past five weeks have tested positive for the viral haemorrhagic fever Ebola.

There have been 17 deaths from in  the northwestern DRC.

Local authorities have limited health facilities and rely on international aid and supplies.

A group of specialists from the WHO and Medecines Sans Frontiers are moving to the area to scale response efforts.

Ebola killed four people in an outbreak in the Congo last year. 

In 2014 Ebola killed 11 000 people in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia. 

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