Alarm over Congo Ebola

THREE NEW cases of the often lethal Ebola virus have been confirmed in a city of more than 1 million people, Congo’s health minister announced, as the spread of the hemorrhagic fever in an urban area raised alarm.

The statement late Friday said the confirmed cases are in Mbandaka, where a single case was confirmed earlier last week.

There are now 17 confirmed Ebola cases in this outbreak, including one death, plus 21 probable cases and five suspected ones. It was not immediately clear what link the new cases might have to others.

While Congo has contained several Ebola outbreaks in the past, all of them were based in remote rural areas. The virus has twice made it to Congo’s capital of 10 million people, Kinshasa, in the past but was rapidly stopped.

The World Health Organization decided Friday not to declare the outbreak a global health emergency, but it called the risk of spread within Congo “very high” and warned neighboring countries that the risk to them was high.

The outbreak will test a new experimental Ebola vaccine that proved effective in the West Africa outbreak a few years ago.

People dress as their favorite David Bowie "look" at "A Night of 1,000 Bowies" at Brooklyn Museum on Saturday. The party coincides with "David Bowie Is," an exhibition of the late artist’s (below inset right) creative process that has toured the world,...