The Ebola outbreak in Congo can be brought under control and is not an international public health emergency, experts advising the World Health Organization said on Friday.

Earlier in the day the WHO had said the first confirmation of Ebola in Mbandaka, a city of about 1.5 million people, had prompted it to declare a "very high" public health risk to the country and a "high" risk to the region.

Three new cases of Ebola were later confirmed in Mbandaka on Friday, in a part of the city next to the Congo River.