AFP, Geneva

The fatal Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo is spreading rapidly, the World Health Organization (WHO) warned yesterday, despite accelerating efforts to tackle the virus.

The WHO said it was still racing to catch up with the worsening situation gripping northeastern DRC.

“The outbreak remains serious” and is “evolving so fast”, said Marie-Roseline Belizaire, the WHO Africa emergencies chief.

“However, I have seen a response that is growing stronger every day,” she told reporters in Geneva, speaking from Bunia, the capital of the DRC’s Ituri province.

The outbreak was declared on May 15, though transmission had been going undetected for some time. It is caused by the rare Bundibugyo strain of the virus, for which there is no vaccine.

There have been 896 confirmed cases so far in the DRC, including 232 confirmed deaths, with 21 new cases in the last 24 hours, according to the latest WHO update.

More than 90 percent of known cases in the DRC have been in Ituri, a province racked by conflict. The outbreak has also spread to North Kivu and South Kivu provinces.

Belizaire said the epidemic was evolving so quickly that the response was racing to keep pace with the virus, which spreads by close contact and infected bodily fluids.