The Ebola outbreak in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo has led to 164 deaths, health authorities said.
In mid-October, Congolese authorities said they were facing a “second wave” of the outbreak centered on Beni, a town in North Kivu near the border with Uganda.
The epicenter had earlier been focused on Mangina, a town about 20 kilometers (12 miles) from Beni.
In total, 257 cases had been recorded in the region, of which 222 were confirmed and 35 were probable, since the start of the outbreak at the beginning of August, the Congolese Health Ministry said in a bulletin dated Friday.
On Oct. 17, the World Health Organization said the death toll was 139, although it said the outbreak did not yet merit being labeled a global health emergency.
The second wave of the deadly virus has been attributed to community resistance to measures already taken to tackle the disease.
On Thursday, about 1,000 students marched through the streets of Beni to launch a campaign to fight Ebola.
Since a vaccination program began on Aug. 8, over 22,000 people have been inoculated, of whom about 11,000 were in Beni, the health ministry said.
An Ebola treatment center in the city now has more than 60 beds, it added.
The latest outbreak is the 10th in DRC since Ebola was first detected there in 1976.
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