The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Friday that a patient infected with Ebola in the Democratic Republic of the Congo had recovered and been discharged from the hospital, marking the first recovery in the latest outbreak.

“DR Congo has said that on May 27, a patient recovered and left the hospital and had been discharged into the community,” WHO spokesperson Anais Legand told reporters.

She said it marked the first recovery among confirmed Ebola patients, but stressed that there may have been other recoveries among people who had not yet received laboratory confirmation.

The WHO confirmed on Friday that 17 confirmed and 223 suspected cases had been recorded in the country since the outbreak was declared, out of 125 confirmed cases and more than 900 suspected cases.

Congolese health authorities and their counterparts in neighboring countries are working to contain the latest outbreak of the rare Bundibugyo strain, for which there is no vaccine or treatment.

The strain can have a case fatality rate of up to 50%.

Meanwhile, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus is set to meet Congolese authorities in Kinshasa on Friday before traveling to the outbreak epicentre in the conflict-hit east of the country on Saturday.

“This outbreak can be stopped,” Tedros said on arrival in Kinshasa on Thursday, after earlier telling Congolese people in a message on X: “You are not alone.”

(With input from wires)