First two Ebola cases confirmed in Congo’s South Kivu

A healthcare worker decontaminates a bed where a baby, suspected of dying from Ebola, was laying in Beni, North Kivu Province of Democratic Republic of Congo

Two Ebola cases were confirmed in Congo’s South Kivu region for the first time this week, health officials said on Friday, more than 700 km (430 miles) south of where the outbreak was first detected.

The cases open up a new front in the fight against an outbreak in Democratic Republic of Congo that has killed at least 1,800 people over the past year, the second biggest toll ever.