Death toll from Ebola climbs to 610 in DR Congo

DAKAR, Senegal

The death toll from Ebola in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has risen to 610 since the start of an outbreak in late July last year, the country’s Health Ministry said on Monday.

Among 1,082 cases of reported hemorrhagic fever, 1,016 were confirmed to be Ebola cases, according to the ministry.

A total of 75 people are still getting treatments for the disease, while 331 have recovered from the virus in the Central African country.

Some 66 people died following hemorrhagic fever, but it could not be verified whether they died of Ebola.

A total of 93,613 people were vaccinated against Ebola virus in the country as part of a campaign that began on Aug. 8.

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 the body fluids of 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.

* Writing by Gozde Bayar