A senior World Health Organization official warned Friday that the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is spreading faster than containment efforts, according to a Reuters report cited by Israeli news outlet N12. The official said that for four out of five patients, the source of infection cannot be traced, and that the true number of cases may be two to three times higher than reported figures.
A senior official at the World Health Organization warned Friday that the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is spreading faster than efforts to contain it, and that the true scale of the outbreak may be significantly larger than official figures suggest. According to a Reuters report cited by Israeli outlet N12, the official stated that for four out of five patients, the source of infection cannot be identified, and that the actual number of cases could be two to three times higher than reported.
The warning comes amid a long-running outbreak that has already caused hundreds of deaths. The Zioneer has previously reported on the WHO's assessment that the global risk remains low, as well as on Israel's Health Ministry travel advisories and preparations for possible cases arriving in the country. The Health Ministry has advised against non-essential travel to the affected regions and has investigated several suspected cases among travelers returning from the Congo.
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