AKIPRESS.COM - The latest outbreak of the Ebola virus in the Democratic Republic of Congo is the worst in the country's history, the health ministry says, BBC reports.

Almost 200 people have died since August, officials say, with more than 300 confirmed or probable cases.

A vaccination programme has so far inoculated about 25,000 people.

DR Congo has suffered long years of instability and efforts to relieve the disease have been hampered by attacks on medical workers.

"At this point, 319 cases and 198 deaths have been registered," health minister Oly Ilunga said.

"In view of these figures, my thoughts and my prayers go to the hundreds of families grieving, to the hundreds of orphans and the families which have been wiped out."

About half the victims were from Beni, a city of 800,000 in the North Kivu region, the national health authority said.