The worst Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo in the country's history

The latest Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo is the worst in the country's history, the health ministry said.

Nearly 200 people have died since August, according to officials, with more than 300 confirmed or probable cases.

A vaccination program has so far vaccinated about 25,000 people.

Congo has suffered from years of instability and efforts to alleviate the disease have been hampered by attacks on medical personnel.

"To date, 319 cases and 198 deaths have been recorded," said Minister of Health Oly Ilunga.

"In view of these figures, my thoughts and prayers are with hundreds of families in mourning, hundreds of orphans and families who have been exterminated."

About half of the victims were from Beni, a city of 800,000 in the North Kivu region, the national health authority said.

• Why Ebola keeps coming back
• Ebola Basics: What You Need to Know

The current epidemic is the tenth of the Congo that has suffered and the worst since its first outbreak in 1976, so early in the history of the disease that it had not yet been named.

The appearance in 1976 of what was then an unknown disease in a remote region of the Congo aroused terror, but it was mastered by experts who quickly identified the nature of the virus and quarantined.

The Ebola virus is transmitted through small amounts of body fluid and the infection often turns out to be fatal.

The first symptoms resemble those of the flu, followed by vomiting, diarrhea, rash, and internal and external bleeding.