Suspected Ebola cases reach 600 and more expected - WHO

There are now 600 suspected Ebola cases after the outbreak in Congo and Uganda, the World Health Organisation has said.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the risk of the disease spreading nationally and regionally was now high - but low at a global level.

He said 51 cases had so far been confirmed in the northern provinces of Ituri and North Kivu in Congo, "although we know the scale of the epidemic is much larger".

Uganda had also told the UN health agency of two confirmed cases in Uganda's capital, Kampala, he added.

"There are several factors that warrant serious concern about the potential for further spread and further deaths," he said.

"First, beyond the confirmed Ebola cases, there are almost 600 suspected cases and 139 suspected deaths. We expect those numbers to keep increasing, given the amount of time the virus was circulating before the outbreak was detected.

"Second, the epidemic has expanded, with cases reported in several urban areas. Third, deaths have been reported among health workers, indicating healthcare-associated transmission. Fourth, there is significant population movement in the area."

Dr Tedros said the outbreak of the rare Ebola strain, known as Bundibugyo, is likely to have started a couple of months ago.

He said there was a suspected death on 20 April but that investigations were continuing.

"WHO has a team on the ground supporting national authorities to respond. We have deployed people, supplies, equipment and funds," he said, adding that $3.9m in emergency funding from the agency had now been approved to support the response.

Congo was expecting shipments from the US and UK of an experimental vaccine for different types of Ebola, developed by researchers at Oxford, Jean-Jacques Muyembe, a virus expert at the National Institute of Biomedical Research, said on Tuesday.

"We will administer the vaccine and see who develops the disease," he said.

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Health experts said the delayed detection of the virus, large movements of population in the affected areas, along with the preexisting humanitarian crisis, complicated the response. Parts of eastern Congo are in the hands of armed rebels, hampering the delivery of aid.

Congo had said the first person died from the virus on 24 April in Bunia, but the confirmation did not come for weeks. The body was repatriated to the Mongbwalu health zone, a mining area with a large population.

"That caused the Ebola outbreak to escalate," said Congo's health minister Samuel Roger Kamba.

Dr Anne Ancia, the head of the WHO team in Congo, said authorities still had not identified "patient zero".

There was a long road ahead, she said, adding that cuts in funding had "a marked detrimental effect on humanitarian actors".

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