Ebola death toll in DR Congo rises over 2,000

DAKAR, Senegal

The death toll from Ebola in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), has risen to 2,014 since its outbreak in July 2018, the country’s Health Ministry said on Saturday.

The ministry said among 3,186 cases of reported hemorrhagic fever, some 3,072 were confirmed to be Ebola cases.

Some 69 people are being treated for the disease, while 989 have recovered from the virus, the ministry report said.

Some 114 people died following the hemorrhagic fever, but it could not be verified whether they died of Ebola.

Ebola -- a tropical fever which first appeared in 1976 in Sudan and the DRC -- can be transmitted to humans from wild animals.

It can also reportedly spread through contact with body fluids, infected persons or of those who have succumbed to the virus.

Ebola caused global alarm in 2014 when the world's worst outbreak began in West Africa, killing more than 11,300 people and infecting an estimated 28,600 as it swept through Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone.