Kinshasa - The Democratic Republic of Congo raised its death toll from the dealy Ebola virus to 42 on Wednesday as it struggled to contain the second outbreak of the deadly disease in Africa this year.

The latest figures include eight health workers, Health Minister Felix Kabange Numbi said in a message sent to AFP.

Some 70 cases of the deadly virus have been confirmed in a remote region near the town of Boende some 800 kilometres northwest of Kinshasa, with a mortality rate of around 60 percent.

According to the World Health Organization and the authorities in Kinshasa, the outbreak is not related to the worst ever epidemic of the virus which has killed more than 3 000 people in west Africa this year.

A month ago, the government said 32 people had been killed in the outbreak, the seventh Ebola outbreak since the disease was first identified in the former Zaire in 1976.