The number of confirmed dead in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in the Ebola outbreak has reached more than 200, the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention reported on Thursday.
Taken together with patients who have died in neighbouring Uganda, the overall figure is now 204, according to Africa CDC representative Wessam Mankoula.
He put the number of confirmed cases at 894, of which 875 in Congo. A total of 74 people are reported to have recovered after being infected.
Mankoula said that in no other Ebola outbreak had the number of confirmed cases in the first month been as high. The current total is three times higher than that of the second-largest outbreak over the same period.
Africa CDC experts were particularly concerned at the low number of contacts being traced, he said.
Mankoula said that only 4,112 contacts of confirmed Ebola patients were currently being actively monitored, while a figure of around 35,000 contacts should be assumed.
He said health authorities were very far from having the situation under control.
