An Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo that has caused more than 80 deaths has a "very high lethality rate" and no vaccine or specific treatment, the country's health minister warned on Saturday.

A total of 88 deaths and 336 suspected cases of the the highly contagious haemorrhagic fever have been reported, the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC Africa) said in an update on Saturday.

Medical aid group Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said it was preparing a "large-scale response", calling the rapid spread of the outbreak "extremely concerning".

"The Bundibugyo strain has no vaccine, no specific treatment," DR Congo's Health Minister Samuel-Roger Kamba said Saturday.

"This strain has a very high lethality rate which can reach 50 percent."

Health officials had confirmed the latest outbreak Friday in Ituri province in northeastern DR Congo, bordering Uganda and South Sudan, according to the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC Africa).

Adding to concerns of spread are significant cross-border population movements in the region affected.

According to Kamba, patient zero was a nurse who reported to a health facility in provincial capital Bunia on April 24, with symptoms suggesting Ebola.

It is the 17th Ebola outbreak to hit DR Congo, and officials warned of a high risk of spread.

The previous outbreak of Ebola, which has killed some 15,000 people in Africa over the past 50 years, despite advances in vaccines and treatment, was last August in the central region.

That episode killed at least 34 people, before being declared eradicated in December.

Ebola, believed to have originated in bats, is a deadly viral disease spread through direct contact with bodily fluids.

It can cause severe bleeding and organ failure. (AFP)


Edited by Tony Sabine