DR Congo tests 12 more patients for Ebola

Twelve people were ordered to undergo testing for possible Ebola infection in Goma in DR Congo on Saturday, only days after three patients in the densely populated city tested positive for the disease, the country's presidency said. A one-year-old girl became the third patient to test positive for Ebola in Goma. She is the daughter of the second patient, a gold miner, who died earlier in the week.

Goma is the capital of North Kivu province, which has borne the brunt of the year-old epidemic that has claimed more than 1,800 lives. The Ebola virus causes fever, vomiting and severe diarrhoea, often followed by kidney and liver failure, internal and external bleeding. The disease is spread by contact with infected body fluids and is fought with laborious techniques of tracing contacts and quarantining them. There is no medical cure for Ebola, although an unlicensed but tested vaccine has been widely deployed to help protect frontline workers.