An Ebola epidemic in eastern DR Congo sharply widened Wednesday, the eve of the first anniversary of the outbreak, with one death and another diagnosis reported and the quarantining of 15 people in a previously unaffected province.

A total of 1,803 lives have been lost in the second worst outbreak of Ebola on record, according to figures released Wednesday. 

The Democratic Republic of the Congo's pointman on the crisis, Jean-Jacques Muyembe, said a second person had died of Ebola in Goma, a densely-populated city on the border with Rwanda that has transport links to many parts of East Africa.

"A patient who was confirmed with Ebola in Goma has died. Every measure has been taken to block the chain of transmission," Muyembe told AFP.

Later on Wednesday Aruna Abedi, the chief Ebola coordinator in the North Kivu province - which has borne the brunt of the outbreak since it began on August 1 last year - said a third person had tested positive for the disease.

Abedi said that vaccination had started at the affected health center. 

"Medical staff and those who had contact with the patient, and those who had contact with them, have been prioritized," he told AFP.

An Ebola response official said the third confirmed case was the one-year-old daughter of the second Goma patient, a father of 10 who had died at the same center earlier in the week.

"The girl had already been showing signs of the disease," the official told AFP on condition of anonymity.