The woman showed symptoms on 1 February in the town of Biena, North Kivu. She died in hospital in Butembo two days later. She was married to a man who had contracted the virus in a previous outbreak.
“It was a farmer, the wife of a survivor of Ebola, who showed typical signs of the disease on February 1,” health minister Eteni Longondo told state television RTNC.
The virus can live in the semen of male survivors for more than three years, according to a study in the New England Journal of Medicine.
“The provincial response team is already hard at work. It will be supported by the national response team which will visit Butembo shortly,” the health ministry statement said.