The World Health Organisation (WHO) said yesterday it has sent protective equipment for medical staff to Democratic Republic of Congo, where authorities have confirmed two cases of Ebola in a remote area.

“The Ministry of Health has declared an outbreak and we are treating it as such,” WHO spokesman Tarik Jasarevic said in Geneva in response to a query.

The current Ebola epidemic, which has killed at least 1,427 people, has focused on Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone with several cases also in Nigeria.

Democratic Republic of Congo declared an Ebola outbreak in its northern Equateur province on Sunday after two of eight patients tested for the virus came back positive, Health Minister Felix Kabange Numbi said.

Infected doctor treated with experimental drug ZMapp died in Monrovia yesterday

Congolese authorities who went to the remote area found 24 cases of hemorrhagic fever of “unknown origin”, including 13 people that had died, Jasarevic said.

Of these, two have tested positive for Ebola, but other samples taken from suspect cases are being analysed, he said.

Meanwhile also yesterday one of three African doctors infected with Ebola and treated with the experimental drug ZMapp died in Monrovia, Liberian Information Minister Lewis Brown said.

Liberia, the West African country where Ebola is spreading fastest, received three doses of the rare treatment on August 13 amid hopes that the treatment may help.

Initially, Liberia said the three doctors, Zukunis Ireland and Abraham Borbor from Liberia and Dr Aroh Cosmos Izchukwu from Nigeria, were responding well to the treatment, raising optimism about the experimental therapy.

Asked to confirm the death of doctor Borbor, Brown said: “That is correct. He died yesterday.”