The World Health Organization has declared the Ebola outbreak as a major public health emergency.
According to reports from local media outlets, the WHO shared more about how the virus was spreading through the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda. It was given the most serious level of global health alert under international law.
This latest declaration comes after a widespread rise in cases linked to the Bundibugyo strain of the virus, with many officials warning that cross-border movement, population displacement, and ongoing conflict in eastern Congo are increasing the dangers of wider transmission.
At least 246 suspected cases and more than 80 deaths were documented in Congo's Ituri province, according to health officials in Africa.
The outbreak is more focused on the mining communities in certain areas, but suspected infections have also appeared in the provincial capital, Bunia. Uganda has confirmed a fatal imported case, but there is no threat of it becoming a pandemic yet. While a vaccine does exist for the virus's most common strain that caused deadly outbreaks in the past, other strains have yet to have a vaccine. Today, stats claim more than 80 people have been killed, while 246 cases were documented.