KINSHASA -- Confirmed Ebola cases in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) have topped 5,200, but Africa's top public health agency warned Thursday that the official count may account for only 30 to 40 percent of infections, suggesting the outbreak could be up to three times larger than reported.
The warning came as the DRC government launched an emergency initiative Thursday to reinforce surveillance along the Congo River, seeking to prevent one of Central Africa's busiest transport corridors from carrying the virus toward major cities, including the capital Kinshasa.
According to the latest figures from the DRC's health authorities, as of Aug. 18, 5,208 confirmed cases, including 2,476 deaths, had been reported across six provinces, with a case fatality rate of 47.5 percent. Another 1,115 patients had recovered.
HIDDEN CASES, MISSING TRANSMISSION CHAINS
The Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) said Thursday that modeling conducted jointly with the DRC's National Institute of Biomedical Research and other partners suggested that the actual burden was substantially higher than confirmed figures indicated.
