The number of confirmed Ebola infections in the Democratic Republic of Congo has risen to nearly 3,000 after health authorities reviewed outbreak data from two of the country’s worst-affected provinces.
Congo’s public health institute said on Friday that 2,905 infections had been confirmed, including 1,269 deaths. The revised figures added more than 300 cases to the national total.
The number of confirmed deaths surpassed 1,000 in data released late on Wednesday.
The World Health Organization has warned that the actual scale of the outbreak could be between two and four times greater than official figures indicate.
The outbreak, Congo’s 17th recorded Ebola epidemic, was officially declared in mid-May, although health experts believe the virus had been spreading for several weeks before it was detected.
The epidemic has been linked to the rare Bundibugyo strain of Ebola, which has an estimated fatality rate of around 40%. There is currently no approved vaccine for the strain.
Health authorities said the sharp increase in cases reported on Friday was largely the result of reconciling provincial records from Ituri and North Kivu with the national database.