Officials confirmed the disease had now reached Goma, a lakeside city of roughly one million people, which lies on the border with Rwanda. Goma is more than 220 miles south of where Ebola was first detected a year ago and is the largest city to be affected by the outbreak. So far Congo has seen more than 2,500 people infected by the disease and nearly 1,700 killed.
The Goma victim was a priest who became infected during a visit to the town of Butembo, one of the epicentres of the outbreak, before taking a bus to the city.
The health ministry admitted the bus had to pass through three checkpoints designed to intercept people with symptoms of Ebola on its way to the city.
North Kivu province’s Governor Carly Nzanzu told an Ebola response meeting the patient was being driven from Goma back to Butembo to receive treatment in a clinic when he died.
The highly-contagious virus is transmitted through bodily fluids, putting anyone who came into contact with the priest at risk of infection.
The WHO said health officials had tracked down 60 people who had come into contact with the victim since he was taken ill and that half of them had been vaccinated.
Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO director-general, said: “The identification of the case in Goma could potentially be a game-changer in this epidemic.
“We are confident in the measures we are put in place and hope that we will see no further transmission of Ebola in Goma.
“Nevertheless, we cannot be too careful.”
Three Ebola cases which originated in Congo were confirmed in neighbouring Uganda a month ago, but no new cases have since been registered in that country.
The outbreak is already the second biggest in history and controlling it has presented major challenges for health teams on the ground despite the availability of a new vaccine.
Decades of conflict in eastern DRC have led to widespread mistrust of the authorities and this also has an impact on the disease spreading.
The International Rescue Committee’s Ebola emergency response director, Tariq Riebl, said: “People are still afraid to come to health clinics if they are experiencing Ebola symptoms.”