Ebola Deaths Toll Hits 131 in D.R Congo

The toll from the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo has risen to an estimated 131 deaths from 513 suspected cases, Health Minister Samuel Roger Kamba said.

"We have recorded roughly 131 deaths in total and we have around 513 suspected cases," Samuel Roger Kamba told Congolese national television overnight.

He cautioned however that the toll was an estimate and further research was needed to confirm whether all 131 suspected deaths were indeed linked to Ebola.

The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) has declared the outbreak a Continental Public Health Emergency, in a statement late Monday.

Declaring a continental emergency empowers the Africa CDC, based in Ethiopia, to mobilise extra resources including emergency response teams and surveillance operations. 

"Africa CDC expresses deep concern about the high risk of regional spread due to intense cross-border population movements, mobility related to mining activities, insecurity in affected areas, weak infection prevention and control measures ... and the proximity of affected areas to Rwanda and South Sudan," it said.

The US State Department on Tuesday strongly urged Americans to not travel to the DR Congo, South Sudan or Uganda.

The department gave the three Central African countries its highest travel advisory – "Level 4: Do Not Travel" – and also urged citizens to "reconsider travel" to neighbouring Rwanda.

The World Health Organization will host an emergency committee meeting on Tuesday to discuss the outbreak in the DR Congo, a WHO spokesman said.

"An Emergency Committee has been scheduled for later today," a WHO spokesman told AFP, two days after the UN health agency's chief declared the outbreak an international public health emergency.

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Tuesday he was "deeply concerned" by an Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo which has spilt into Uganda.