KINSHASA, May 18 (Xinhua) -- The number of confirmed Ebola cases of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has risen to 14 after the Health Ministry announced 11 new confirmed cases and one new related death in the country's northwest.

A ministry statement late Thursday said the 11 new confirmed cases and one new related death were reported in the town of Bikoro in Equateur Province, where the Ebola outbreak was officially announced on May 8 by authorities.

It said the new death has epidemiologic ties to another case. Another lethal case in Wangata on Thursday was a suspected one.

The statement said the total number of Ebola cases is now 45, including 10 suspected cases, 21 probable cases and 14 confirmed cases.

Health Minister Oly Ilunga said of the current 25 deaths, only one has been confirmed as Ebola, adding that no new health professionals have been contaminated.

On Wednesday, the minister said the Ebola outbreak in the DRC entered a "new phase" following the first reported case of the deadly virus in the northwestern city of Mbandaka, with a population of some 1 million.

The first 4,000 doses of experimental vaccine from the World Health Organization (WHO) to combat the Ebola outbreak arrived Wednesday in Kinshasa, the country's capital.

The Ebola vaccination campaign will first target health workers

The DRC is at its ninth Ebola outbreak since 1976. Ebola is a highly infectious disease spread through contact with even small amounts of bodily fluid of an infected person. Its early flu-like symptoms are not always easy to detect.