The World Health Organization hopes to begin a vaccination drive against Ebola in the Democratic Republic of Congo later this week, according to Director-General Tedros Adhanom.

The WHO chief made the revelation in a media briefing on Thursday, where he noted that a second case of Ebola had been reported.

The first case was reported on Sunday near the city of Butembo in North Kivu Province.

"Vaccines are being sent to the area and WHO has deployed a rapid response team to provide support to local and national authorities," said Tedros.

"More than 200 contacts have been identified. We hope vaccination will begin this week."

Butembo was one of the hotspots of the last Ebola outbreak in the DR Congo which killed nearly 2,300 people, and the WHO noted that it was not unusual for sporadic cases to occur following a major outbreak.

Tedros noted that health authorities now have significant experience in responding to Ebola and in preventing transmission, thanks to capacity building during the last outbreak which ended in June last year.