DAKAR (Reuters). Friday’s death of the third Ebola victim in the northwest Democratic Republic of Congo was announced by the World Health Organization (WHO), the latest in a series of deaths linked to an epidemic first identified last month.

This 48-year old man is the latest confirmed case of Congo’s 14th epidemic of hemorhagic fever. It has struck the capital city of Equateur, Mbandaka.

The WHO stated that health workers began Ebola vaccinations last Wednesday and inoculated more than 350 people. Of these, 250 contacts were involved.

On April 23, the first confirmed case of this disease was made public. Three more deaths are currently being investigated.

There have been 13 Ebola outbreaks in Congo, with the most recent one occurring in East Africa in 2018. This was the worst Ebola epidemic in history, killing nearly 2,300 people.

Six people were also killed in the last epidemic, which occurred in the east.