WHO is working with the DRC government to control the outbreak, with more than 100 contacts of the deceased traced to date.
A second person died of Ebola this week in North Kivu province in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the ministry of health and the World Health Organization (WHO) said in a statement.
A 60-year-old woman who died on Wednesday in the Biena district had a connection to a woman who also died after contracting Ebola and was married to a survivor from the previous outbreak, the statement said.
The DRC health ministry has sent a team to the area and is tracking more than 100 contacts of the two women in the health zones of Biena and Katwa, the statement said.
Matshidiso Moeti, WHO regional director for Africa, emphasized on Thursday during an interview that the UN health agency is working in coordination with the DRC government to prevent the spread of the disease.
Both cases of Ebola were detected almost three months after the DRC announced the end of its 11th outbreak hundreds of kilometers away in the northwestern province of Equateur, which infected 130 people and killed 55.
This outbreak coincided with a previous one in the east, occurring from August 1, 2018 to June 25, 2020, which killed more than 2,200 people, the second largest in the history of the disease and the deadliest in the DRC.
The last person declared recovered from Ebola in Equateur was on 16 October.
The widespread use of Ebola vaccines, administered to more than 40,000 people, helped to contain the disease.
Last year, two ebola vaccines were approved and distributed, including one by the pharmaceutical company Johnson & Johnson, which also produced a COVID-19 vaccine that will require only one injection and can be stored at regular refrigerated temperatures.
The emergence of more cases of Ebola could complicate efforts to eradicate COVID-19, which has infected 23,600 people and killed 681 in the DRC.
COVID’s vaccination campaign is scheduled to start in the first half of this year.
Peter Piot, director of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicines, said during the WHO briefing that there are no reasons to prevent the distribution and administration of effective vaccines for both Ebola and COVID-19.
Ebola is a hemorrhagic fever caused by a virus that spreads through contact with body fluids. In extreme cases, it causes fatal bleeding from internal organs, mouth, eyes or ears.
The average Ebola mortality rate is approximately 50%, but it can reach 90% in some epidemics, according to the WHO.
The virus that causes Ebola is believed to live in bats.