The current Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo is now the worse on record since the devastating outbreak of 2014-2016.

The DR Congo health ministry says as of Sunday 1,506 people have died in its latest outbreak of Ebola, which has lasted 10 months.

The epidemic that struck mainly in Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone between 2014-2016, killed more than 11,300 people.

Earlier this month, the virus claimed two lives in neighboring Uganda among a family who had traveled to the DRC.

Nearly 141,000 people have been vaccinated in the affected eastern DR Congo provinces of Ituri and North Kivu, the epicenter of the outbreak.

Chronic violence and militia activity in Ituri and North Kivu, as well as hostility to medical teams among local people, have hampered the response.

The United Nations in May nominated an emergency coordinator to deal with the crisis. However, the World Health Organization (WHO) said this month the outbreak currently did not represent a global threat.