The ongoing deadly Ebola Outbreak in the Eastern Part of the Democratic Republic of Congo has now claimed a total of 49 lives since the start of the month, the Government has said, and the World Health Organization expects even more cases in the coming weeks.

The increase in the number of Ebola-related deaths, coupled with a further 2000 people feared to have come in contact with the virus, adds to the growing number of woes of a country already battling with political uncertainty, violence, and displacement.

Since the first reported case in the North Kivu Province on August 1, the current outbreak has killed 49 out of the 90 reported cases, according to the latest bulletin released by the health ministry released on Saturday.

It highlighted that of the 49 deaths from the Ebola Virus, 27 cases were 'probable' while 63 were confirmed. Confirmed cases are determined through laboratory tests carried out on blood samples taken from patients. Probable cases concerns sick people with a close epidemiological link to other confirmed cases, but who have not undergone testing.

Of the 49 deaths, 39 were recorded in Mangina, an agricultural village located 30 kilometres ( about 20 miles) Southwest of the city of Beni. Three deaths were also recorded in the neighbouring province of Ituri.

Field teams have identified 2,157 “contact”-people who may have come in contact with the deadly virus-according to the health ministry.

WHO spokesman Tarik Jasarevic while speaking to reporters on Friday from the UN agency’s Geneva headquarters said that it “expects more”.

“We don’t know if all the chains of transmission have been identified,” he said further.

The current outbreak is the 10th to hit the DRC since 1976 when Ebola was first identified and named after a river in the northern part of the country.

Ebola is still considered incurable, though quick isolation and rapid treatment of symptoms, such as diarrhea, vomiting, and dehydration have helped some patients to survive.

The need for a vaccine grew increasingly urgent when 11,300 died in an Ebola Epidemic that hit the West African States of Guinea, Sierra Leone, and Liberia in 2013-2015.

AFP