Congo's Ebola outbreak has spread to three new health zones, according to a government report that shows the number of confirmed cases had risen to 676, including 136 deaths.
The figure represented the total number of confirmed cases as of Wednesday, the report published on Thursday said.
The new health zones impacted by the outbreak were in North Kivu and Ituri.
A health zone in Congo's healthcare system covers a defined area with a network of clinics and a referral hospital, covering around 100,000 to 150,000 people. There are more than 500 health zones in the country.
When presenting the new figures, Africa Centre for Disease Control Director General Jean Kaseya expressed particular concern about the low number of contacts of Ebola patients in Congo that had been identified and traced.
He said in his weekly report that just under 5000 contacts of confirmed Ebola cases had been identified in Ituri province, where more than 600 confirmed cases make it the centre of the outbreak.
However, it was estimated that each patient in the region - characterised by high population density and high mobility - had around 40 contacts, which would amount to around 24,000 in total. Yet even of the contacts that had been identified, only around 57 per cent were being traced, Kaseya said.
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"If we don't know these people, if we don't have them in the list, if we don't follow up, it means there is a huge risk of transmission to be sustained in the community," he said.
He added that there were still confirmed Ebola cases that had not been isolated and placed in treatment centres.
"It means if we don't reach out to all of them, those we know they are already confirmed, those who are contact, we cannot say we can control this outbreak," Kaseya said.
with DPA
