DR Congo declares free of Ebola

Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo)'s health minister Felix Kabange Numbi announced the country now is free of Ebola virus as no new case has been reported over the past 42 days as of Saturday.

The minister said that emergency medical teams were still deployed in the epicenter of the disease in a bid to prevent the resurgence of the epidemic.

A total of 43 people have died of Ebola in the country, out of a total of 71 cases of infection since the first Ebola case was reported in August.

Latest update from the World Health Organization showed that more than 5,000 people have been killed in west African countries in the current outbreak of Ebola virus since earlier this year.