Late on Thursday, the country’s ministry of health announced 11 new confirmed Ebola cases and two deaths, taking the total number of cases to 45 (14 confirmed, 10 suspected, 21 probable). The agency, which on Wednesday deployed the first experimental vaccines in the vast central African country, expressed concern about the disease reaching Mbandaka. “We are entering a new phase of the Ebola outbreak that is now affecting three health zones, including an urban health zone,” Oly Ilunga Kalenga, the health minister, said in a statement on Wednesday evening. The vaccine will be reserved for people suspected of coming into contact with the disease, as well as health workers. Ben Shepherd, an expert on the DRC at London’s Chatham House, said the country had managed earlier outbreaks of the disease “pretty well”.

Source: The Guardian May 17, 2018 14:52 UTC