Death toll tops 200 in DR Congo

The death toll from an Ebola outbreak in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo has risen to more than 200, the health ministry said on Saturday.

The ministry said it had recorded 201 deaths from the virus and that 291 cases have been confirmed since the outbreak began in August.

About half of the cases were in Beni, a city of 800,000 people, in the North Kivu region. The outbreak is the tenth in DR Congo since Ebola was first detected there in 1976.

Ebola is a serious infectious disease that can spread rapidly through small amounts of bodily fluid, causing internal bleeding and potentially death.