PRETORIA, May 17. /TASS/. The death toll from the Ebola fever outbreak that began this month in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in Ituri Province has risen to 88, according to representatives of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the African Union agency that monitors the epidemiological situation on the continent. 

"To date, Ebola fever has killed 88 people. The number of presumptive cases is 336," they said in a communique.

Earlier, health authorities reported 80 deaths and 246 cases of infection. Another person died from Ebola three days ago in neighboring Uganda.

The WHO has declared the Ebola outbreak in the DRC and Uganda a public health emergency of international concern. This is the highest level of global alert, according to the WHO classification.

According to the South African radio station SABC, WHO experts are concerned about the unexpectedly active behavior of the causative agent of the current outbreak, the Ebola-Bundibugyo virus. It has spread significantly in just a few days.

"The Ebola-Bundibugyo virus has a very high mortality rate, which can reach 50%," said DRC Health Minister Samuel Roger Kamba. "There is no vaccine or specific treatment for it."

Congolese health authorities reported that the first case of Ebola was detected in the capital, Kinshasa, in the last 24 hours. The patient recently arrived in the city from Ituri. Authorities are not releasing details about the patient to avoid causing panic in the capital. All possible contacts the patient may have had in Kinshasa are being identified.

Over the past 24 hours, a second case of Ebola has been confirmed in Uganda. Earlier, a person who had recently arrived from the DRC died from the disease in the capital, Kampala.

The Ebola virus is transmitted from wild animals to humans, including bats. The first symptoms of the disease are fever, muscle pain, headache, and sore throat. This is followed by kidney and liver dysfunction, and in some cases, internal and external bleeding. The first human case of Ebola was recorded in what is now the DRC in 1976. The largest outbreak in terms of infection numbers occurred between 2014 and 2016 in West Africa across Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone. The death toll then exceeded 11,000.