Nearly 100 children have died from Ebola in the Democratic Republic of Congo since the second-worst Ebola outbreak in history began in August.
As of Feb. 9, the World Health Organization reported 510 confirmed and probable deaths linked to the outbreak, 97 of which occurred among children. Of these victims, 65 were under age 5.
The nonprofit group Save the Children warned the death toll could increase due to a spike of new cases reported in January. In total, the WHO reported 811 confirmed and probable Ebola cases linked to the outbreak.
"If we don't take urgent steps to contain this, the outbreak might last another six months, if not the whole year," Heather Kerr, Save the Children's country director in the Congo, said in a press release. "The DRC is a country suffering from violence and conflict and an extreme hunger crisis — some 4.6 million children are acutely malnourished. The main concerns for many people are safety and making sure they have enough to eat. But Ebola has to be a priority too."