Ebola outbreak in Congo spreading faster than first thought, says WHO

An Ebola outbreak which has killed at least 131 people in the Democratic Republic of Congo may be spreading faster than originally thought, a World Health Organisation (WHO) representative has warned.

Dr Anne Ancia told the BBC that the more the agency investigates, the clearer it becomes that cases have spread to other areas.

Officials said more than 513 cases were suspected in the DR Congo as of Tuesday, while one person has died in neighbouring Uganda.

But modelling by the London-based MRC Centre for Global Infectious Disease Analysis released on Monday suggested there had been “substantial” under-detection and that it could not rule out there had already been more than 1,000 cases.

The study suggested that the current outbreak is “larger than currently ascertained” and that its “true magnitude remains uncertain”.

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The Red Cross warned that Ebola can escalate quickly if cases are not identified early, communities lack information and health systems are overwhelmed, adding that “we are seeing all those conditions” in the current outbreak.

On Tuesday, DR Congo President Félix Tshisekedi called for “calm” and urged Congolese citizens to remain vigilant, after holding a crisis meeting on Monday evening.

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who declared the outbreak an international emergency last week, said he was “deeply concerned about the scale and speed of the epidemic”.

It is feared the outbreak may have been ongoing for several weeks before it was first detected on 24 April.

There is no vaccine for the strain of Ebola virus fuelling the latest rise in cases, but the WHO is evaluating whether other drugs may provide protection.

Speaking to the BBC World Service, Ancia said DR Congo’s Ituri province, the epicentre of the outbreak, was a “very unsecured area with lots of movement of population”, making it difficult for the agency to investigate and help control the disease.

She continued: “The more we are investigating this outbreak, the more we realise that it has already disseminated at least a little bit across border and also in other provinces.”