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Real number of Ebola cases in Congo may be four times higher than official tally — WHO

According to Executive Director of the WHO Health Emergencies Program Chikwe Ihekweazu, many patients die at home without ever reaching a medical facility

GENEVA, July 14. /TASS/. The real number of Ebola virus contractions in the Democratic Republic of the Congo may be up to four times the official estimate of around 2,000 infections and more than 700 deaths, said Chikwe Ihekweazu, Executive Director of the WHO Health Emergencies Program.

"We think, with some of our support in modeling, that the scale of the outbreak is at least two to four times the number of cases that we have found. Every day, our capacity to find cases are increasing and improving. So the confidence in the numbers keeps improving day to day," he said at a briefing.

He explained that about 80% of new cases are detected outside the contact list of patients, meaning they occur through unknown chains of transmission. Also, many patients die at home without ever reaching a medical facility.