The Ebola outbreak in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo has killed more than 200 people, making it the deadliest outbreak in the country since the deadly virus was first detected there in the 1970s.

The DR Congo health ministry recorded 201 deaths from the virus, and confirmed 291 infections since the current outbreak began in August, just days after an earlier outbreak in a different part of the country was considered closed.

"No other epidemic in the world has been as complex as the one we are currently experiencing," said Health Minister Dr. Oly Ilunga Kalenga. 

The United Nation's Department of Peacekeeping is calling on armed militias vying for control of the mineral-rich eastern region to stop interfering with health care workers trying to combat the spread of the virus.

"Since their arrival in the region, the response teams have faced threats, physical assaults, repeated destruction of their equipment, and kidnapping.  Two of our colleagues in the Rapid Response Medical Unit even lost their lives in an attack," said Dr. Kalenga.

Officials say the outbreak could actually have been worse:  Had they not managed to vaccinate more than 27,000 high-risk contacts with an experimental drug, they say more than half of that group could have developed Ebola disease.