MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 24th June, 2019) More than 1,500 people have died from the Ebola virus disease in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) since last August, the country's Health Ministry said.
"The situation on Sunday, June 23, 2019: a total of 2,239 cases (2,145 confirmed and 94 probable), 1,506 deaths and 621 cured persons," the ministry said on Twitter.
The Ebola virus is transmitted to humans from wild animals and is estimated by the World Health Organization to have a 50-percent fatality rate. Ebola is named after the DRC's Ebola River, near which the virus was discovered by Belgian microbiologist Peter Piot and his team in 1976.
The largest Ebola outbreak took place in West Africa in 2014-2015, with more than 11,000 people having died and some 28,000 cases having been reported.
