Ebola outbreak in DRC responsible for as many as 31 deaths, according to revised count

"An outbreak of Ebola hemorrhagic fever has claimed possibly as many as 31 lives in the northeast of the Democratic Republic of Congo since May, Health Minister Felix Kabange Numbi said Thursday," Agence France-Presse reports. "Numbi said an international committee for technical and scientific coordination in the fight against Ebola had carried out retrospective research to find previous cases, which raised the death toll," according to the news agency (9/13). "We can expect an increase in the number of cases as more people are tracked. These are not necessarily new cases," WHO spokesperson Tarik Jasarevic said, adding, "I want to stress that this is a serious outbreak, and there is a risk of the Ebola virus spreading, but we would not say that it's out of control," NPR's health blog "Shots" reports (Doucleff, 9/13). "The latest WHO figures show there are now 65 probable or suspected cases of Ebola in Congo, with 108 people under surveillance," Reuters notes (9/13). "Last month an outbreak of a more deadly Ebola strain in neighboring Uganda killed 16 people, but health workers say the two outbreaks do not appear to be related," according to BBC News (9/13).