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An Ebola vaccination campaign will begin Thursday in the Congo city of Beni after new cases of the virus were confirmed this week, the World Health Organization said Wednesday.
More than 200 doses of the vaccine have arrived in Beni, eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo.
The latest confirmed cases are genetically linked to outbreaks in North Kivu and Ituri provinces in 2018-2020 that claimed nearly 2,300 lives.
New Ebola infection in eastern Congo linked to devastating 2018 outbreak
Six people died in another flare-up from the same outbreak last year.
A WHO spokesman told Reuters the injections were provided by the organization and vaccinations will begin on Thursday.
Congo’s dense tropical forests are a natural reservoir for the Ebola virus, which causes fever, body aches and diarrhea, and can remain in survivors’ bodies and recur years later.
The vast Central African country has documented 14 outbreaks since 1976. The 2018-2020 outbreak in the east is the largest in Congo and he is the second largest ever recorded, with a total of nearly 3,500 cases.
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The most recent outbreak in Congo occurred in northwestern Equateur Province. The end was declared in July after five people died.