JOHANNESBURG -- They call her the "young miracle." A baby who was admitted to an Ebola treatment center just six days after birth has now recovered from the virus.
Congo's Health Ministry calls the baby the youngest survivor in what is now the world's second-deadliest Ebola outbreak.
The ministry late Thursday tweeted a photo of the infant, swaddled and with tiny mouth open in yawn or squall, surrounded by caregivers who watched over her 24 hours a day for weeks.
The baby's mother, who had Ebola, died in childbirth, the ministry said.
The infant was discharged Wednesday from the treatment center in Beni. "She went home in the arms of her father and her aunt," the ministry said.
Experts have reported worryingly high numbers of children with Ebola in this outbreak, which Congo's Health Ministry says now has 515 cases, 467 of them confirmed, including 255 confirmed deaths.
The tiny survivor is named Benedicte. In video footage from UNICEF, she is shown in an isolated treatment area, cradled in the arms of health workers in protective gear or cuddled by Ebola survivors who can go without certain gear such as masks.
"This is my first child," her father, Thomas, says. "I truly don't want to lose her. She is my hope." He gazes at his daughter through the clear protective plastic.
Children now account for more than one-third of all cases in this outbreak, UNICEF said earlier this week. One in 10 Ebola cases is in a child under 5 years old, it said, and children who contract the hemorrhagic fever are at greater risk of dying than adults.
While Ebola typically infects adults, as they are most likely to be exposed to the lethal virus, children have been known in some instances to catch the disease when they act as caregivers.
Few cases of Ebola in babies have historically been reported, but experts suspect transmission might happen through breast milk or close contact with infected parents. Ebola is typically spread by infected bodily fluids.