The Ebola outbreak raging in central Africa had a “big head-start”, the World Health Organisation (WHO) chief acknowledged Wednesday, but insisted efforts to rein in the deadly virus were making progress.

The outbreak, which was declared on May 15 in the northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), has so far been confirmed to have infected 359 people, including 61 who have died.

But the actual numbers could be far higher, with the virus believed to have been spreading under the radar for some time before it was detected.

“The outbreak had a big head-start and we’re still behind,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters at the UN health agency’s headquarters in Geneva, but insisted that “we’re catching up”.

Tedros, who had just returned from a trip to DRC, where he travelled to the outbreak’s epicentre in Ituri province, said he had been “very encouraged by the level of commitment I saw everywhere I went”.

But challenges remain, he said, warning that “the virus is ahead of us… we need to move faster”.

It has been clear from the start that the difficulties would be daunting, with the outbreak concentrated in Ituri, where decades of armed conflicts have forced millions of people from their homes and into crowded camps.

Ebola patient visited UAE

The region’s insecurity, limited testing capacity, lagging contact tracing and mistrust among some of the population are among the challenges facing the response, Tedros said.

On top of that, no vaccine or approved treatment exists for Bundibugyo, the rare strain of Ebola behind the current outbreak.

Ebola, which is passed on through close contact and bodily fluids, has killed more than 15,000 people in Africa over the past 50 years.

The current outbreak — the 17th to hit the DRC — has to date seen 344 confirmed Ebola cases across three of the country’s provinces, including 60 deaths, said the WHO.

The UN health agency also tallied 116 suspected cases of the disease.

Fifteen cases, including one death, have also been reported in neighbouring Uganda, including a Congolese resident who had arrived there after first travelling to the United Arab Emirates, Tedros said.

“WHO is working with public health authorities in Uganda and the UAE to gather additional information, assess the risk of exposure during travel, and to facilitate contact tracing,” he said.

Speed up contact tracing

The agency has said the risk from the outbreak is “very high” at the national level, “high” at the regional level, and “low” at the global level.

Tedros stressed on Wednesday that while the WHO recommends exit screening at airports, ports and border crossings in affected countries to prevent the spread of the virus, broader limits were unhelpful.

“Blanket travel restrictions imposed by some countries are disrupting supply chains and hindering the response,” he warned.

“We ask countries that have imposed blanket travel restrictions to lift them.” Reining in the outbreak would instead centre on significantly bolstering and speeding up the response on the ground, including by decentralising laboratory testing in Ebola hotspots, Tedros said.

At present, only around 45 per cent of known contacts of Ebola cases have been followed up, the WHO chief said.

“To get ahead of the outbreak, we need to get that number up to above 90pc.” Abdi Rahman Mahamud, the WHO’s emergency alert and response director, told reporters that so far, more than 1,400 tests had been conducted.

But decentralisation across five priority locations – Mongbwalu, Beni, Aru, Nyakunde and Tchomia – should soon make it possible “to do 1,000 tests a day”.