KINSHASA, DR Congo (AFP) — Health authorities in the Democratic Republic of Congo have declared a new outbreak of the Ebola virus, which has killed 15 people since the end of August, the health minister said Thursday.

The new outbreak is in central Kasai province, Samuel Roger Kamba told reporters in the capital Kinshasa.

The last outbreak of Ebola in the vast central African nation was three years ago and killed six people.

Twenty-eight suspected cases have been recorded, according to provisional figures, with the first case reported on August 20 in a 34-year-old pregnant woman who was admitted to hospital.

“It’s the 16th outbreak recorded in our country,” Kamba said.

First identified in 1976 and thought to have crossed over from bats, Ebola is a deadly viral disease spread through direct contact with bodily fluids, causing severe bleeding and organ failure.

The deadliest outbreak in the DRC — whose population numbers more than 100 million — killed nearly 2,300 people between 2018 and 2020.

Six strains of Ebola exist.

Health authorities say the Zaire strain — for which there is a vaccine — is the cause of the new outbreak.

“Fortunately, we have a vaccine for this Zaire strain, but to deploy it we need to ensure the logistics,” Kamba said.

Four times the size of France, the DRC has poor infrastructure, with often limited and poorly maintained lines of communication.