NAIROBI, Aug 14 (Bernama-dpa) -- Six provinces in the Democratic Republic of the Congo are now affected by Ebola, with the director of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) warning on Thursday that the outbreak could become the largest in history if not brought under control, German Press Agency (dpa) reported.
Cases have now also been confirmed in the city of Buta in Bas Uélé province, linked to infected individuals from the neighbouring province of Haut Uélé, Jean Kaseya said in his weekly situation report.
According to the Congolese Health Ministry, 4,566 cases have been confirmed since May, and 2,128 people have died from the highly contagious infectious disease.
Those figures, however, only cover the period since the outbreak was officially declared in May, Kaseya stressed. "All the studies available to us indicate that the outbreak began around February, and we have no idea what happened between February and May," he said.
"If we do not stop this outbreak, it will last more than a year and will be the largest in the world," Kaseya said. That would also increase the risk of the outbreak spreading to other countries, he added. During the first phase of the outbreak, cases had also been recorded in Uganda, linked to travellers from the Congo.
A further complicating factor is that while Ebola deaths normally occur in hospitals and isolation wards, more than 63 per cent of the deaths are currently occurring among the general population in villages and towns, and the deceased are frequently not being buried by trained workers.
--NNN-BERNAMA-dpa