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An Ebola vaccination campaign will begin Thursday in the Congolese city of Beni after a new case of the virus was confirmed this week, the World Health Organization said Wednesday.
More than 200 doses of the vaccine have arrived in Beni, in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, it says.
The latest confirmed case was genetically linked to a 2018-2020 outbreak in North Kivu and Ituri provinces, which claimed nearly 2,300 lives.
NEW EBOLA INFECTION IN EASTERN CONGO LINKED TO THE devastating epidemic of 2018
Six people were killed in another flare-up of the same outbreak last year.
A boy is seen walking in Beni, Democratic Republic of the Congo on April 1, 2019, where a vaccination campaign is currently underway after a new case of Ebola was reported in the area this week.
(REUTERS / Baz Ratner)
A WHO spokesperson told Reuters the shots were provided by the organization and vaccinations would begin on Thursday.
The dense tropical forests of Congo are a natural reservoir for the Ebola virus, which causes fever, body aches and diarrhea and can linger in the bodies of survivors only to re-emerge years later.
The vast central African country has experienced 14 outbreaks since 1976. The 2018-2020 outbreak in eastern Congo was the largest and second ever recorded, with nearly 3,500 total cases.
THE DEFENDING VIRUS OF MARBURG SIMILAR TO EBOLA COULD DEFEND FAR AND WIDE WIDE IF NOT STOPPED: WHO
The most recent Congo outbreak occurred in the northwestern province of the Equator. It was declared closed in July after five deaths.
