The Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo has spread to the northwest city of Mbandaka, the World Health Organization said, adding it will convene an Emergency Committee on Friday to consider its international risks. "One new case of Ebola virus disease has been confirmed in Wangata, one of the three health zones of Mbandaka, a city of nearly 1.2 million people in Equateur Province in northwestern Democratic Republic of the Congo," the UNs health agency said in a statement.  The outbreak, publicly declared on May 8, had previously been reported in a rural area of Equateur that lies roughly 150 kilometers from Mbandaka. "This is a concerning development," WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in the statement.  The agency said it was deploying around 30 experts to Mbandaka "to conduct surveillance in the city." An expert committee will decide in its emergency meeting on Friday whether to declare a "public health emergency of international concern", which would trigger more international involvement, mobilizing research and resources, WHO spokesman Christian Lindmeier said. "We are entering a new phase of the Ebola outbreak that is now affecting three health zones, including an urban health zone," DRCongos Health Minister Oly Ilunga Kalenga said in a statement late Wednesday. "Since the announcement of the alert in Mbandaka, our epidemiologists are working in the field to identify people who have been in contact with suspected cases." Forty-four cases have been reported in the outbreak so far, including three confirmed, 20 probable and 21 suspected, according to the WHOs tally. It is the ninth time Ebola has been recorded in DRCongo since the disease made its first known appearance near its northern Ebola river in the 1970s. Ebola is most feared for the internal and external bleeding it can cause in victims owing to damage done to blood vessels.