A health care worker wears virus protective gear at an Ebola treatment center in Bikoro, Democratic Republic of the Congo. The country’s latest outbreak has spread to a city of more than 1 million people.

John Bompengo/AP

A new case of Ebola has emerged in an urban area of Democratic Republic of the Congo, a troubling development in the country’s new outbreak of the contagious and often fatal virus. Until now, the outbreak had affected a rural area.

Dr. Oly Ilunga, Congo’s Minister of Health, announced Wednesday that a suspected case was confirmed in Mbandaka, a city of about 1.2 million people, and the capital of the Équateur Province.

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Dr. Oly Ilunga@OlyIlunga

Avec la confirmation d’un cas positif d’#Ebola à Mbandaka, nous passons à une nouvelle phase de l’épidémie et nous mettons tous les moyens en oeuvre pour y répondre…